Shipwreck
by daybreaks
Summary: 15 Shinobi, One Boat, One Island. The Result? Absolute Chaos. -Permanent Hiatus-
1. Chapter 1: The Storm

**UPDATE: 27/1/08**

**For the good of _everyone_ concerned... **XD

This 'fic is:

**On Permanent Hiatus**

**In the State of Permanent Incompleteness **

**Forever.**

(... well, THAT was a load of cheese.)

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Hiya… this is my second Naruto fanfic story posted here…. Umm, please note that I am only up to the Chuunin exams in Naruto. Hopefully that makes some sense to you. If it doesn't, don't worry.

Note that because of the former reason I may not have all the characters REALLY in character but I'm trying- I've done research! The time in which the story is set in the Naruto 2 Arc…

Um… The Rookie 9 are all around 15, Team Gai 16, Gaara 15, Kankuro 16, temari 17…

Yeah! Let's go!

Oh! Wait. There are some pairings in this but they're more canon. You can spot them if you want to, but it's not that obvious anyhow. Later on, the pairings may come more into the story. And the parings are…

ShikaIno, SasuSaku, NaruHina, NejiTen.

ShikaTem, KibaHina, The latter are MAYBES.

So read on… And hopefully enjoy!

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Shipwreck Chapter 1

The Storm

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The once clear blue sky was now rapidly turning dark, as storm clouds approaching from the horizon approached the ship.

"Damn…"

Even as the first rain drops touched her forehead Temari knew she'd have to go inside. This was only quiet place on board the boat that she'd been able to clean her fan for a while but now she'd have to find another quiet place- which was a difficult and arduous task on this boat. An A-Rank Mission for any ninja.

It wasn't hard to believe either- with Naruto and that weird bushy-eyebrowed ninja running amok in the ship, things were bound to get noisy. She had been locked out of her cabin because this dog ninja somehow decide to put his life on the line and lock her cabin door, and chuck her key into the ocean. Sadly, that dog boy could not be found and for sake of note destroying the ship, the Sand nin couldn't use her jutsus.

The kunoichi wished she had never been assigned for the mission in the first place. Being born and bred in the middle of a desert where water was precious and scarce, the sea seemed a little too… amazing for her.

The mission. To escort a highly reputable noble to another country which lay across the sea. Temari scowled slightly as she glanced at the man whom they were meant to guard. An overweight, unintelligent, annoying, man who seemed to way more make up then all the women on the ship put together… Which was actually really quite disturbing.

The number of ninja chosen to for the escort mission was huge… Fifteen of them to protect one fat man. It was aggravating, a total waste of talent and time, but worst of all there was no way out. Tsundae, the current Hokage of Hidden Leaf Village had told them when assigning them all their mission that even though the man they were escorting was an idiot it had to be done for good relations.

A grimace made its way to Temari's face. Good relations. Though she was working as some sort of peace coordinator between her home village an Konoha, she had no idea what that kind of 'good relations' could actually mean… Even Gaara somehow had to come on this mission… His was the kazekage even! Fifteen shinobi. She, Gaara, Kankurou, and twelve other ninja for Konoha that they had met during their first chuunin exams were also in the team. Irratating but interesting...

More raindrops pittered pattered down on her, snapping the kunoichi out of her thoughts. Temari cursed again and snapped her fan shut. If she was going to muse and think to herself any longer, her fan would most definitely be ruined in the rain. Chucking cleaning utensils into a small pack, she hurried through the doors into the ship. Glancing back outside, she noticed the storm clouds rapidly approaching- and was that…A crackle of thunder she heard? Temari shrugged and closed the door behind her. She was just glad to get out of the rain.

--

Ten metal stars were all perfectly embedded into ten targets allotted along the wall. Ten out of ten. Of course, that was expected- if even one missed by a millimeter there would be something wrong with her. Tenten smiled. She had come here just a few minutes ago to just train a little and whittle down time. She didn't like the mission of escorting this plump man but…

The weapons master gazed around in the training room she was in. The boat was reasonably big. Actually, it was huge, it was the biggest boat she had ever seen, let alone been on. A big kitchen, eating area, large bedrooms for fifteen ninja, showers, bathrooms… The ship seemed like a floating mansion. If escorting people back and forth across the sea was a mission while enjoying the luxuries of the rich that would be fine with her.

It wasn't much of a challenge though, or an adventure. She did not like the person they were meant to guard but it was a mission. The kunoichi threw another ten shuriken at another ten targets that had been previously set up for her by the ship staff.

Another ten out of ten… Tenten let another group of metal stars fly. The kunoichi didn't look to see if they had missed- she already knew. Instead, she was already on to throwing weapons at the next ten targets... And the next... And the next... Tenten began to pick up the pace, throwing her weapons faster and faster while also finding enough time to use chakra strings to get the thrown shuriken back and have a never ending supply.

She probably would've gone on forever in this fashion but a footstep alerted her of an intruder. Whirling around,Tenten drew out a kunai, ready for battle. Who was it that dared to- Oh wait. It was only him. Tenten smiled and dropped her battle stance, flicking her kunai back into its holster with ease.

"Here for a spar?"

"Yes…if you're done with that…"

The Hyuuga heir flicked his eyes briefly towards the shuriken embedded into the targets.

"Anytime Neji." the weapon's specialist complimented the words with a bright smile on her face.

Veins popped out of the side of Neji's forehead as he activated his byukugen. Taking a few steps backwards, the shinobi adopteda battle stance and waited for his team mate. The weapons master responded readilywith a flurry of shuriken. But they never hit their target- they were merely hurled back at Tenten. Somehow, somehow strangely and weirdly a small tiny smile made its way to Tenten's mouth. There was some kind of pleasure she took in helping him improve his skills. She had never yet won a spar with him- but somehow she didn't mind. As if, losing meant nothing to her…

Tenten snapped out of her thoughts as she saw Neji rushing towards her. That wasn't good. Her tenkutsu points couldn't be closed this soon! Leaping into the air, the brown haired kunoichi released two scrolls which held enough weapons for a small army. Time to see if her Twin Rising Dragons could penetrate Neji's already impenetrable defense. Flinging every weapon she could lay her hands on, she didn't even look shocked or surprised when every one of them was deflected.

She guessed that both of them had always improved from these spars, though Neji, being a prodigy, as many would call him, was still ahead of her. And would probably still always be ahead of her. There was a sudden pang inside of her. Was she always to be in the shadows while her teammates, both considered geniuses in their rights, grew stronger and stronger? She lost concentration of the battle for a moment, confused. She had never really felt this feeling before… Usually seeing Lee and Neji accomplish more and more complicated and powerful jutsu, she was half mad with joy for them…But now, it felt like she was jealous.

Tenten cursed as she saw that Neji was just upon her, his right hand aiming for her arm. What was wrong with her today? She should keep her focus… Jumping back a few more meters, the ninja flung a shuriken at her opponent, causing Neji to jump back a couple of meters and jump to the side to avoid the weapons.

Rapidly growing with anger at herself, for not concentrating on the spar before her, Tenten started to fling more and more shuriken at Neji. The pang of whatever feeling it was had long left her and she felt nothing but excitement as she threw more and more silver stars.

Suddenly, there was a massive jolt. Tenten was flung against a wall brutally. Out of the corner of her eye she saw blood. Blood oozing out of Neji's right shoulder from a shuriken wound. Jumping up and calling apologies and concerns to her white-eyed teammate, the kunoichi grabbed bandages from her pack.

While she half rejoiced that she had actually managed to hit Neji, those rejoicings were stopped by her guilt that she was happy that she hurt her teammate and that she knew it was probably impossible to hit Neji. It was that-

Tenten felt herself pushed left by a sudden…Jolt. As she fell towards the ground, Tenten landed on her feet and rushed faster towards Neji who was trying to get up. She was nearly there…

"_Faster! Faster!"_ she chanted in her brain, but she never reached him. For just as she knelt beside him, there was another jolt, and Tenten's world plummeted into darkness as she slammed into the far wall of the room.

--

Water. Water was everywhere. He was surrounded by it. He was in it. He was drowning in it. The shinobi suddenly realising what was happening, choked for air and swam up to the ceiling of the room where a small pocket of air was floating. Bursting out of the water, Sasuke, breathed heavily. What the hell was happening? He had been lying on his bed one minute, choking and gasping the next. Glancing down through the water at his submerged room, the ninja took a deep breathe of air and went down.

The boat was sinking. That he knew but he had no idea how long until the boat took until it sank fully into the sea. He wasn't waiting for that to happen. He wasn't going to die in a shipwreck like this. It didn't even seem honorable... Sasuke kept swimming down and down till he reached his bed. Grabbing his forehead protector, the ninja looked around quickly. If he were actually to get out of here, and even survive, he'd need things. Tying the protector around his forehead, Sasuke felt the oxygen in his lungs rapidly becoming less and less.

Frantic, he grabbed his pack, and hoisting it onto his shoulders, swam back up to the air pocket. Just his luck. Just after he had swallowed a few breathes of air, he felt the waterrise upto just under his chin.Taking another deep breath, Sasuke dived down again. The door. The way to get out of this nightmare.The ninja paddled furiously towards it and yanked it open. Right. That step was done.Where to next? Out. Out of here. Somewhere with lots of air, somewher-

Opposite his cabin, was of course Sakura's cabin. Whether it be by luck or that the pink haired kunoichi had managed to bribe someone, Haruno Sakura had somehow managed to get a cabin opposite to his.

He remembered that she was beaming when they had all found out where their cabins were. The ninja peeked in the door and was horrified to see her floating in the water, appearing to be asleep. This could not happen! How did you sleep while being surrounded by water? That was just too too wrong... But even as Sasuke swam into the room, deciding mainly on impusle to get Sakura out of there, something held him back. His air was running out. He didn't have enough time to go get Sakura with his remaining air and just survive.

And the more time he spent contemplating about it, the less air he had. His eyes narrowed.A good chance of drowning by attempting to save her or a less chance of drowning by just leaving her there... Besides that, she was just an annoying fan girl that somehow managed to get put on his genin team. He didn't have time for people like her. He couldn't die here for some pink haired brat. He was an avenger, his purpose in like to avenge his family and nothing else. Besides, he hardly knew her anymore. After he left to Orochimaru, any relationship they had faded away.

So why was he finding himself slinging Sakura over his shoulder and swimming out of the room? He had no idea why. Maybe it was because he didn't want her death on his conscience, maybe he had the slightest bit of feeling for her…

But the Uchiha heir didn't spend any more time pondering those thoughts. Where was he to go now? But, there was something very odd about all this. There was something that felt peculiar about the water… There was something strange about the way that air bubbles from his mouth came out… The air bubbles were going out of his mouth sideways… Not up like they normally would but sideways… What was going on?

It hit him. The boat had been turned over sideways, and was sinking sideways. So to get out… Sasuke headed back to Sakura's room. Grabbing what looked like Sakura's bag that she took for missions, he swam towards the wall, and pummeled on the window.

It took seconds, which seemed like more minutesto Sasuke forthe glass to break, and shielding his face, with his arm, the ninja swam out into the opensea. No more air…

His body needed air. desperately.NO! He had to keep swimming. He was going to make it, who cared about his damn body when he could live. Up, up up… He was drowning, he was drowsy… He could let it all go… Just rest for a minute, let the water comfort you, pull you down and let you rest forever of the sea bed… NO!

Sasuke swam furiously; he was going to make it. HE and Sakura were going to make it. Up, up, up! The air was running out, water was entering his system; his eyes were closing but…He couldn't. Both of them couldn't die here. After going all the way back to save her… His efforts were not going to be in…vain.

Air. He had made it. He had made it to the surface. Never had air tasted sweeter or felt better in his whole life. Never had he known how thankful he was for each tiny breathe of air. Even which lightning flashing overhead and rain drenching his skin and hair, air had never been so precious. But, he couldn't stay here…

He had to go somewhere… But where… In the deep and seemingly endless ocean, with rain pelting down on your back, and with cold and tiredness setting into your body, most would want to and would give up. But not Sasuke. He was a prodigy, a genius. Maybe it was because of his intense will to survive and avenge his family, maybe it was because that he was finally experiencing to be totally responsible for the life of another person… Maybe even a precious person…

He was not going to die here. And neither was Sakura. With a mental command to his body, Sasuke started to swim towards the horizon. They were going to make it.

--

The lightning flashed and the thunder roared. The rain poured down like there was no tommorow and everywhere you looked, anything you saw, anything you felt or touched… Everything was drenched. Wet. Water was everywhere. Aburame Shino did not like water. The insects that he had always lived with and known for his entire life did not like water. Thus, he did not like water. It was only logical. But storms were not logical. They tended to be more on the illogical side. And unfortunately, he was caught in one.

The shinobi stood still for a moment. As he stood and made a plan. The boat was definitely sinking upside down. He was alone, up on deck. From what he could see, the ship had run into some rocks… And to the east… Was that an island?

It wasn't even that far off… But, he was not going to swim. He was able to, but he wouldn't. Even if his life was at stake, swimming for beneath him- Aburame Shino that is.Wiping raindrops of his sun glasses, the shinobi gazed around the chaos. Strangely, there wasn't a person on deck… Hinata and Kiba… Where were they? In the distance, he saw a person swimming with another person on his or her back… That wouldn't be Hinata and Kiba. Akamaru would be with them. But a sudden jolt caused the ninja to delete all thoughts of going after his old team mates from his mind.

It was impossible, as much as he hated to admit it… The ship was huge and even if heturn back and head into the ship to search for his team mates... Shino knew that he would definitely die. Swallowing, the shinobi drew out a kunai and inone swift motion,sliced through a rope that held still a life raft.

Another swift motion and a splash was heard as the life raft hit the water below. In another second, Shino was on that raft, and he began to row. Aburame Shino was not what you call a shinobi who relied on his physical strength… The ninja rather relied on his insects and his brain to get him out of situations. Except that in this situation…. A set of strong untiring arms would help. Especially in rowing the life raft. The insects that he had known throughout his life fled for cover into his body, desperately wanting to avoid the rain. It was hard work rowing the raft. Tiring work.

In fact, it was hard to believe he was getting anywhere… The island only seemed to be getting closer at a very slow pace. Shino adjusted his glasses before starting again. It was the only way he could think of and the only way he was stuck with... After a while, his rowing began o turn into a pattern, something he couldn't stop. He just kept rowing and rowing… He wanted to rest but his arms kept rowing. He wanted to stop but his arms kept rowing. It was almost scary, but Shino didn't care.

He was almost at the island.

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That was... Hopefully okay. Please Read and Review... Otherwise I'll probably leave this in a little dark cupboard and forget about it! Heh heh...

-StarDragon X


	2. Chapter 2: The Island

Hello Everyone! Thanks to the people who reviewed! You guys are jwust so wonderful!

**The Reviewy Person -** Thanks SO MUCH! Yup! And I'm not leaving it in a dark cupboard, partly thanks to you! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

**Hachinoko-**Thankees soooo much! I'm taking your advice on humor- hopefully it won't be lame humor…0.o .But yeah, enjoy! I know my fic is awesome! XD Thanks again a lot a lot a lot!

**Shukaku**-**chan-**W00T! W00T! Congratulations to you on being the first reviwer! Thanks soooooooo much! SO SOSOSOSOSOSOSO MUCH!

To you three dudes, again- you rwocks!

Okay- now on with what we're all waiting for! The next chappie! Enjoy, and hopefully

Hachinoko, you like my humor! XD (even if it is lame…)

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Shipwreck Chapter 2: 

The Island

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Perfect blue sky… White fluffy clouds in the most interesting shapes… A gentle breeze… Warm air… Soft sand… Peace and silence… Yes. This was definitely heaven. Or at least something near to it at least… Paradise maybe-

"SHIKAMARU!"

Or maybe not. Nara Shikamaru gazed at the source of the voice. Ino. Of course. Who else would ruin his moments of bliss? Choosing unwisely to ignore his fellow shinobi, Nara ignored the voice and looked back to the sky. Ooo… There was one that looked like a fluffy cat… And there was another that-

"SHIKAMARU! SHIKAMARU!"

The voice called again, and repeated, growing in volume. But Shikamaru decided to use his genius to block out the noise and keep on with his favorite habit- watching clouds. It was so troublesome to do anything else… And hey, look at that cloud…

"SHIKA-MAAAAAAAAAAAAAARU!"

This time the voice cut through his sound barriers, nearly making his ear drums shatter. The voice from what he could tell was annoyed, angry, and other typical Ino characteristics. A second later, Yamanako Ino was glowering over her lazy team mate, a vein pulsing on her forehead. That definitely wasn't positive behavior…

"Get off your lazy butt! I called seven times! Seven! And you didn't even come! What kind of ninja are you! This isn't a beach resort you know!" The blonde continued her anger growing as she continued to rant, "We've been shipwrecked! SHIPWRECKED! And all my bags and make up are on the ship!"

"Fortunately…" muttered Shikamaru, trying to shift his body so that Ino wasn't blocking his view of the clouds overhead.

"Are you even listening to me? We've been shipwrecked! Where is everyone! Where are they! Oh wait… No… Don't tell me I'm stuck with you!"

The kunoichi continued to shriek loudly and rant hysterically. Shikamaru ignored her. What was up with her? Yeah, they were shipwrecked- but that could be taken as a good thing as the environment was perfect to watch clouds. A few moments later, the shinobi found himself being dragged painfully by his ear across the beach.

"Oi! Oi! What do you think you're doing?" he asked, getting annoyed.

"Didn't you hear me!" she replied angrily, "You're going to help me find the others no matter what! I am not going to be stuck here a lone with someone like you! Anyone else but you! Why! Why is fate so cruel!"

"Don't you think you're… over reacting?" he replied.

"No! I. Am. So. Not. Overreacting!" The sound waves blasted loudly and Shikamaru swore that the others would for sure hear it. Or at least anyone at all on the island…

"Besides… What's one with being with me? I am, after all, a genius."

Even from his discomfortable position, the Chuunin managed a smirk at Ino.

"You're also a lazy bum!" she retorted, "Get up will you? Or do I have to yank your ear off?"

Grumbling and muttering to himself, the shinobi got up and immediately shoved his hands into his pockets and slouched. So troublesome…

"Where are we going anyway…?"

"To the other parts of the beach… People must have at least been washed up right?"

"Huh… Whatever."

"Oi! Look at your hair! It's so messy! Can you at least neaten up?" Ino chided, "At least re tie your hair! I don't want to be seen walking with a monster!"

"Seen by who?" but he complied with her wishes anyway, not pondering on why he even was doing what she was saying. Troublesome woman.

The two walked along, Ino scanning the area for teammates, Shikamaru fixing his hair. As the shinobi finished, he noticed that the blond kunoichi had stopped dead in her tracks… As he followed her gaze… Well… He was at a loss for words.

A shinobi clad in green spandex was running on the ocean water, carrying what it looked to be supplies from the ship… Running on water and screaming about youth… That was even worse then Ino… What was his name? Rock Lee?

"That is so wrong…" Ino's face had contorted into a '0.o' type of face, "Shikamaru- I made a mistake earlier about not wanting to be stuck with you. I wouldn't mind being stuck with you any day."

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There were exactly 386 types of ramen that Uzamaki Naruto had tasted and sampled. Sadly none of those 386 types of ramen were on an island. You would never find instant ramen, let alone ramen on a deserted island like this. You probably wouldn't even find normal food… And who knew how long he'd be stuck here? Torture- pure torture. How could he suffer like this?

And besides that, he was turning into some time of lunatic… For the past few hours, the blonde shinobi had been wandering dazed into the jungle, trying to comprehend that he had actually been shipwrecked. He may have been unlucky… But not this unlucky! How did this happen to him…

Ramen… How badly did he want to go home and eat ramen with Iruka sensei with Iruka sensei treating him to Ramen…

"Hey!"

Naruto spun around, grabbing his kunai as he did so and snapping out of his thoughts.

"Ah. It's only you…"

Chouji. The guy that was really chubby and always seemed to have a bag of potato chips with him…Food. Chouji would definitely have some food…right?

"Hey Chouji…"

"Hey Naruto…"

Both ninjas looked sheepishly at each other before uttering the exact same sentence, "Do you have some food?"

They then both made the same, "…" which was followed by a,"No."

Naruto cursed, "Don't you always have food? Why don't you have food? You're meant to have food!"

"Oi! Why don't I ask you why you don't have food, "Chouji retorted, before looking very mournful, "All my food supplies currently in the ship… Which is underwater… Why me!"

"Yeah…Why us…" repeated Naruto just as mournfully, "Hey… Have you seen the others…?"

"_Maybe they have some food…heh heh heh…"_

"No… I've been looking for them… I thought I heard Ino screaming a while ago…?"

"Oh- so that's who it was…"

Naruto cringed with the memory, the sound waves from earlier that morning had pummeled very painfully into his ears. He was still recovering from it.

"She screeched something about not overreacting right?" Chouji asked, after Naruto responded with a nod, "Yeah… Definitely Ino. I wonder who she was screaming at…She probably killed the poor guy with the volume of her voice…"

Naruto slapped a mosquito that landed on his neck. He was still wet from being washed up from the shipwreck and those damned bugs… They were everywhere and he had red marks as evidence from when they had made a meal out of some of his blood. Then, he was hungry -starving actually. This was just perfect wasn't it?

"I'm going back to the beach… Wanna go? These damned bugs are killing me…"

"Idiot. Bugs can't kill you… The worst they can do is land on you… Either that or you're pretty weak to get all those red marks from them- I don't have any…"

"The bugs can't get your blood 'cause you're so thick skinned…" muttered Naruto.

Fortunately Chouji didn't hear Naruto, "What are you waiting for? Let's go."

The two, set off towards the beach, trekking slowly through the dense jungle. Chouji seemed to lag behind, Naruto sweating heavily from the heat. Naruto shook his head as he mused to himself. On an ordinary basis, he hardly ever exchanged words with the food loving ninja.

Now, he found himself traveling next to him, having a conversation. Naruto allowed a small bitter smile to appear for a second on his face before wiping it away. Before, almost everyone but Iruka sensei called him idiot for no reason- or even worse, not talk to him at all and look at him with those cold eyes.

Here he was now; he was respected and even liked by most of the shinobi… Even Sasuke, after being retrieved from Orochimaru had come to respect him. He was no longer the weird blonde boy who was shunned and stupid, but an actual powerful ninja who was one day going to make his mark in the world. Interesting how things turned out.

Naruto smiled again. He was definitely going to reach Hokage status. No matter what.

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"Ruined... All three… Ruined!"

Kankuro swore loudly and punched a conveniently nearby palm tree. All three of his war puppets were ruined! Ruined! It had taken him a long time- a long time to make those puppets and adjust and modify them so that they were absolutely perfect for battle. He had started when he was still a genin and all three had lasted through various battles and attacks… But they seemed unable to withstand the force of the sea.

The war puppets were not all together broken but they were clogged with seaweed and a lot of the wood was broken from crashing into rocks and parts were scattered here and there on the sandy beach. In short, it would take a lot of work to get them back to their normal state. The sand ninja had found them all washed up here… Just his luck.

He had just barely managed to survive the shipwreck yesterday night, and he was still half in shock at what happened. Shipwreck… He was probably going to be scarred for life as this was his first and probably last trip at sea.

Yesterday was the day that Kankuro learned to swim. Yesterday was the day that Kankuro nearly drowned. The ninja was basically doggy paddling to shore after jumping overboard the ship. He was just in time too, for a few minutes later the ship groaned and fully crashed into small nearby rocks.

The sixteen year old made it to the shore of this island and collapsed, too exhausted to do anymore. He couldn't find his siblings and hoped desperately that both were safe. He knew that Temari was sort of skittish around water and Gaara? Well… He just didn't do water.

Sighing, the ninja used some fallen palm leaf fronds to make a crude sack to carry his puppets in. Carefully placing his puppets into the green sack, the brown haired shinobi then heaved the bag over his shoulder and started to walk across the sandy beach.

For the first time that he had been on the island, Kankuro felt the sand tickle his toes and felt a sudden pang of homesickness. Even if his family, or rather his siblings, weren't at home in the Hidden Sand Village… There would always be things he would miss.

He also noticed that he had no sandals or footwear on. That would be a problem. Kankuro swore again but unfortunately there was not conveniently placed palm tree for him to punch. It would be hard on his feet, trekking through the jungle bare footed.

Broken parts from the shipwreck came floating up to shore but they were useless. Just pieces of wood there weren't even of decent quality. Walking on, there were a few minutes of silence before something eventful happened.

A body wrapped up in a huge piece of cloth seemed to lie on the shoreline in a very corpse like manner. Kankuro swallowed. Did he really want to go and investigate? Wait a minute… What were those…? Black things crawling over it! No. Definitely not. Kankuro grimaced and started to walk on. Poor guy… Having his body eaten by savage insects…

Savage insects… Why was that phrase so familiar…? Why was that cloth… so familiar? Turning around, Kankuro decided to study the scene more. Usually Temari would be the one doing this type of work, but she wasn't here. He had only taken quick glance at the body before- it wasn't the type of thing you stared at.

He now noticed a life raft and a set of oars… Life raft… Food supplies… Survival Kits… Double Bonus. The body… No. The insects didn't seem to be eating the body they seemed to be… Sunglasses… The ninja had spotted a pair of dark sunglasses lying further up the beach.

It came to him. That guy who was meant to be his opponent in the Chuunin exams. Kankuro grimaced upon remembering. That ninja had beaten him… Getting attacked by those savage chakra sucking bugs was not a pleasant experience. Was he obliged to help the guy?

The seconds ticked by as the ninja weighed out the good outcomes versus the bad outcomes… He would have another person to watch his back- good. That guy might not be too friendly with him- bad… He did not like those bugs- bad… That guy was strange-bad…

But even at that point of time where there were clearly more bad outcomes then good, Kankuro decided mainly on spur of the moment, and not wanting a death on his conscious to… help the guy.

Swallowing, and putting down his bag, the shinobi walked over to the ninja and gave him a poke. Nothing happened. Two pokes. Nothing. Water…Good old sea water… Nothing- oh wait! Reaction. Aburame Shino had officially woken up. But in a split second, the ninja had retrieved his sunglasses, put them on and was adopting a battle pose.

"… Look… I'm not going to hurt you… We were on the mission as allies before the shipwreck remember?"

"It's good to be prepared." was the guy's cool answer.

Kankuro hated brats. Even if Aburame Shino was a teenager.

"Whatever…"

Kankuro started to heave his bag onto his shoulder and grabbed the survival kit from the life raft. Shino took the rest of the objects from the life raft that could be identified as useful and started walking beside the Jonin, inspecting his injuries and bugs. The pair didn't exchange words. For what could be said? They were probably opposites in most things. But, what they did do in unison and almost perfectly in unison was to stop and stare.

A guy… Was running at incredible speed towards them- he was wearing green spandex… What type of fashion sense did he have? And the bowl cut and eyebrows… Damn- it was him. They just happened to bump into Rock Lee. Why? Why him? The gods if there were any gods were being especially cruel to him today.

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"Good morning Shino-kun! Kankuro-kun!"

Rock Lee beamed happily the two shinobi before him.

"Yeah…" was Kankuro's response while Shino didn't make any response except to nod.

"What are you doing anyway?" The Jonin looked at the various objects in the ninja's arms.

"I'm getting supplies. Who knows how long we'll be stuck here! I must ignite the fire of my youth! YOSH!"

"Well, I'm not going to…" muttered Kankuro and started to walk again, "I have to find my siblings."

The green clad shinobi shook his head and flashed what many called the Good Guy Pose.

"No need Kankuro-kun! I have already found them! In fact, I've found a lot of people!"

Rock Lee grinned. This island was great! It was easy to train here, he'd already run up and down this beach several times! Sadly… He'd be hoping to do around twenty but he'd kept meeting the other shinobi and getting supplies that sadly only seven laps up and down the beach could be achieved. He hadn't started on his daily routine of punches and kicks yet- he was actually worried that his little warm up of running on the beach wasn't enough… And then…

"Gai sensei isn't here…" the words were said mournfully, almost tearfully.

But unfortunately, the words didn't seem to take an effect on his two companions. If anything, they looked slightly pleased.

"Anyhow look!" Lee pointed to two people in the distance.

Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru. They seemed to be staring at him… Lee checked himself- his hair wasn't just about right. No! Shame! Highly mortified and embarrassed, and whipping up a comb and gel bottle that he had salvaged form the wreck, Lee proceeded to spiff up his heir to what it should be.

His fellow ninjas seemed to gag. But Rock Lee took no notice of that- if anything he took it as a good sign. By now, Ino and Shikamaru had come over.

"Ah- have you guys seen anybody? I wonder where Sasuke-kun is!" the blonde beamed happily while trying to ignore Lee spiffing up his hair.

"Have you seen Gaara? Temari?" replied Kankuro- he too was ignoring Lee.

"I've seen everyone!" Lee closed the gel bottle with an enthusiastic snap and chucked his grooming accessories into a coat pocket, "Their on the other side of the beach or in the jungle! They'll be coming now! I'll go find them!"

Nodding, a flashing the rest a smile that went 'ping!', Rock Lee scampered off. This island experience really was quite… enjoyable. Other then the fact that they had been shipwrecked and there was no Gai sensei and Sakura-chan was no where in sight…

Lee nodded and put those troublesome thoughts of his mind. It was going to be great! A great way to power up his burning flames of youth! In fact, he didn't actually see why the others were being so… down hearted.

If anything, very few things could stop Rock Lee from being in his happy and abnormal state of mind. Certainly not shipwrecks, food, or well… anything.

* * *

Whee! Golly… That was kind of long! But, congrats for getting through it!

Drop in a review! So that I can actually continue! WHEEHEEHEEHEEE!

Oh… And anyone who reads this story- I'm planning on doing weekly updates. Yup an update every week!

-StarDragon X

(NEXT CHAPTER- RENUNITED)


	3. Chapter 3: Reunited

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Shipwreck Chapter 3:

Reunited

* * *

The first thing that Haruno Sakura saw when she opened her eyes was… Something that her sleepy brain could not currently identify… Something black… Something blue… Something- Sasuke? Yeah… Sasuke… That was normal, right she could go back to- wait… SASUKE-KUN!

Jumping up and becoming fully alert, Sakura swallowed when she saw where she was.

"A… beach?"

It could be some strange… Sakura scanned the area, searching and looking carefully. No. It wasn't an illusion jutsu. She was sure of it. So… Was this meant to be good or bad?

"_WE'RE STUCK WITH SASUKE-KUN! HELL YEAH IT'S GREAT!"_ screamed Inner Sakura completely ignoring the fact that she had no idea where they were stuck with Sasuke-kun or whether they were even stuck with Sasuke-kun.

Shaking her head to get rid of her inner self's ranting, Sakura gathered her thoughts together and tried to think logically… What was the last thing that happened to her…? Oh yeah… She took a nap… And round up here. That was… illogical. And with Sasuke… Even more illogical in a certain sense. Speaking of whom…

Sakura glanced down at her fellow shinobi. She blushed, upon remembering her childish crush on him, when they were still both genins. It seemed like such a long time ago now… Around two and a half years to be exact. He had left for a while in search of power. He had been brought back a month or so ago and was still under constant watch and care by the ninja of Konoha.

She knew that the others threw bewildered glances at her when she had acted so gleefully and happy when she found out her cabin was opposite his at the start of the mission. The others were bewildered... Why? It was almost obvious. Most of the others on the mission to escort someone were still distrustful and wary of Sasuke for joining the 'enemy'. Even Ino had given up her crush on him a long time ago and who knew who she was chasing now…

Why she acted like that… All happy and hyper… She had no idea. Maybe it was Inner Sakura egging her on and yelling, "We're opposite Sasuke-kun!" that made her do it. Maybe it was something else. Sakura shook her head. Sasuke wasn't her idol anymore. Or the subject of her puppy love. He couldn't even be considered a friend to her or even Naruto. They were still so far apart from when after he came back. So he was… Just Sasuke. He was so different… Like a complete stranger for most of the time… But enough of that anyway… Wait, was that her- Was that…

"My…bag?"

The pastel pink bag that she had brought along with her on the mission was sitting a little bit away from her. Scampering over to it, Sakura hugged the bag to her chest as a small sort of comfort. She was jumping from thought to thought, trying to figure out where she was and what had happened at the same time.

After cuddling her bag for a few more moments, the kunoichi undid the fastener and rummaged through her bag, checking to see if everything was all there. Yeah, just about. Medical supplies, various weapons, various objects, and a few personals were jumbled in the bag, slightly wet from something. In fact, now that she thought about it… The outside of her bag was wet, quite wet actually. What the hell had happened?

After twiddling her fingers in the same fashion that another shinobi, Hinata, did, Sakura wondered if she should try… waking Sasuke-kun. She knew she really should but she didn't exactly want to… make him… into an enraged, maniacal Sasuke who was going to kill her for disturbing his sleep. After all, he did look completely wiped out- and she had seen how powerful he was at times…

The Uchiha was practically sprawled out on the sand… Almost if he had just swam a swimming marathon and just made it to this beach. A spot of tenderness crossed Sakura's face but was quickly wiped away when the kunoichi saw the ninja waking up. Well, at least she didn't have to bother waking him up… The heir of the Uchiha Clan immediately jumped up, brushing sand off him.

"Ah… Good morning Sasuke-kun!" greeted Sakura warmly.

The shinobi responded with a nod and grabbed his bag.

"Um… Where are we are we?" asked Sakura tentatively.

"The boat got shipwrecked on some rocks during a storm. You're on an island." He stated bluntly.

"Oh." Sakura's mind started to process these new ideas, "We're shipwrecked…"

When did that happen? Slowly, very slowly Sakura really realized what happened and she paled. This was getting from bad to worse… You didn't just get… Shipwrecked… It was a once in a million years type of thing, it was too rare… She wasn't that unlucky…

"Oh… Did anyone…" her voice went down, "Drown?"

"I don't know."

Sakura brushed a strand of pink hair away from her face and half flopped down against a large boulder on the sands. Shipwrecked… That was just so very very wrong…. It wasn't meant to happen but it did… And then…

"Did you save me, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's face brightened when she saw the Uchiha pause.

"No. You got washed up."

"But I woke up right next to you!"

"But you washed up right next to me."

"You saved me."

"Believe what you want."

"You saved me."

"Believe what you want."

And that was the end of the particular conversation. Although, both ninjas knew the real truth, they did not say anymore. For both of them, they knew that words were probably useless and that what they already knew was good enough. Good enough to bring them one step closer to each other.

--------------------------------------------------

Inuzaka Kiba usually did not run around screaming. It would have a rather negative effect on his reputation and he just did not run around screaming. It was something Kiba didn't do. However, on this particular occasion, Inuzaka Kiba felt very much like running around and screaming. This may be due to the fact that he was aware of the fact that he had been shipwrecked and Akamaru was nowhere in sight. In fact, there wasn't even a scent of trace of Akamaru anywhere.

The shinobi was in short, not used to being alone. Have a furry companion with you every hour of your life and you'll feel how Kiba felt on this particular day. Kiba had ridden on Akamaru out of the ship last night when it was half submerged in water. He had fallen asleep almost as soon as he hit the shore of this island, resting against Akamaru. This morning when he woke up, well… No Dog in sight. No tell tale paw prints of where his friend was. Nothing.

He had left the beach long ago and into the jungle of the island, searching and looking. No luck yet. In fact, he hadn't seen anyone else yet… If they hadn't drowned… Surely he would've have bumped into them? Is was almost freaky… Surreal… But-

"Kiba-kun!"

Turning, the brown haired ninja saw Naruto and Chouji emerge from around a corner. Chouji was contently stuffing his face with a strange yellow fruit- one pudgy hand of his held a ripe bunch of the fruit and there was a trail of yellow skins behind the ninja. Kiba grinned- he felt much better in a group then off a lone.

"Eh…? Where's Akamaru?" Naruto looked around, puzzled, "Isn't he normally with you?"

"Ah…" Kiba's grin faded away, "Akamaru's disappeared. Have you seen him?"

Both shinobi shook their heads.

"We're trying to find the others…" replied Chouji, in between bites, "I have a feeling most of them are on the island."

"Oh?"

"We heard Yamanako Ino shrieking earlier at someone… So yeah." Answered Naruto while wiping a bead of sweat off his forehead.

The yellowed haired shinobi had his trousers rolled up and was dressed in a black shirt. Red marks dotted Naruto's body… What had happened?

"Oh… Bugs…" answered Naruto when he saw Kiba looking.

Kiba responded with a frantic look on his body, checking for any red marks. Fortunately, there were none… A yellow skin hitting the ground near him, switched Kiba's thoughts to another subject- the weird yellow fruit that Chouji seemed to find so divine in taste.

"What are those things anyway?" Kiba pointed to the fruit that Chouji was eating.

"I dunno. But they taste pretty good. Want some?" The shinobi held out one segment of fruit.

Warily, Kiba took it. He was more of a meat eater- fruits and vegetables just didn't taste that nice to him. The fruit was slightly curved and the skin felt leathery… Was this even edible? Kiba took a bite. But the skin was as he suspected- quite tough. He worked his jaws, biting and chewing, trying to get a piece off.

It was disgusting! How did Chouji actually eat these things! Kiba gagged and turning away from the other two, spat out what he was eating. When he turned around, the shinobi was surprised to see the other two… laughing.

"What…"

But both were still laughing for strange reasons that Kiba did not know… Idiots.

"You've – ate – the skin – of it –" choked out Naruto, gasping.

"And- you're- mean to eat – the inside!" finished Chouji.

Kiba frowned. He didn't find it that funny… In fact it wasn't even funny at all. Sighing, he looked down at the fruit in his hand. The 'skin' of this fruit was a huge hole where he had bit a piece of. Underneath, was a pale yellow thing…? It looked much more edible then the skin. Peeling the skin out, the shinobi took the inner layer out and popped in his mouth.

Sadly, it didn't fit. And the other two were still laughing at him. And sadly, he hated the taste anyway. Again, turning away from the others, Kiba gagged, swallowed, and threw the rest of the fruit away. Ugh… Who would want to eat that? Obviously Chouji. The shinobi was still stuffing his face, the number of fruits growing rapidly smaller by the second. He had to meet two of the strangest ninja on this island… Fate had decided to torture him today. But before Kiba had anymore time to have further thought on this subject, a loud cry from behind them made them all spin around, grabbing for kunais that weren't there.

Kiba cursed, they were all weaponless. Of course- their weapons probably fell out when they were escaping the ship. This was not-

"GOOD MORNING KIBA-KUN! GOOD MORNING NARUTO-KUN! GOOD MORNING CHOUJI-KUN!"

The three stood stock still, realizing who was running towards them. Only one person could run at such a speed that was almost bordering impossibility- and that was Rock Lee. From farther off, there were sounds of…

"Damned speedy freak…"

"SLOW DOWN!"

"Hurry up Shikamaru! You're lagging behind! STOP RUNNING SO FAST LEE-SAN!"

"Idiots…"

Lee stopped next to them, skidding to a perfect stop, and turning around so he could watch the other ninja with him catch up. Turning his head towards Chouji, Kiba, and Naruto, Lee flashed them the infamous 'good guy pose'.

Kiba twitched. That… thing was overused… Very overused. Turning, Kiba ignored the cheering from Lee for the others to run faster. An irritated Kankuro came first, a bag slung over his shoulder. Ino came second, stampeding quite suitably like a wild boar after Kankuro. Shino came, bounding from one tree to another, and landing coolly on the ground beside them… And Shikamaru…?

The ninja was shuffling along, nearly out of sight; he was so far away from everyone else. The black haired shinobi seemed not to notice that he had a numerous amount of people glaring at him, nor that Lee was shouting at him.

"Idiot," muttered Kiba, "Hurry up! We haven't got all day!"

What kind of genius was he…? Kiba shook his head, and sighing, leaned against a tree. It was going to be a very long day.

--------------------------------------------------

Gaara was used to silence. He was used to very long periods of silence. But that was a completely different type of silence compared to the one that he was experiencing now. This silence was a very awkward silence. For the Kaze-kage of the Hidden Sand Village just happened to be walking with Hyuuga Hinata. A kunoichi known to be shy- and he was ninja who wasn't exactly known to be sociable.

"It-it's a nice day, isn't it Gaara-kun…?" Hinata tried weakly.

Gaara responded with an unidentifiable sound. Hinata took that to be yes. Honestly… He had grown up with only one female in his childhood. And that was Temari- any other female had a tendency to run away from him, screaming 'Demon'. He winced at the memories that suddenly cropped up in his mind…

"Do-do you think we should try to find the others?"

Gaara glanced down at the younger teen. It was sometimes hard to believe that she was even a ninja… Hinata, from his limited knowledge of her, seemed quite frail and weak. But, he had to admit, she was decent, even maybe quite good in battle. Gaara blinked, remembering he had a question to answer.

"Yes. That would be a good idea."

The two had gotten out of the boat last night together. Hinata was walking on water, using her concentration of chakra to allow her to stay above the ocean. He too, was walking on the ocean waters, though much more calmly. A falling plank of wood from the crashing ship was dropping onto the Hyuuga and he had stopped it. Even with his limited powers of sand control, Gaara had used it to block the plank, and to alert the kunoichi of the danger. Even now, he was suffering a small lapse of shock every now, and then. After all, that had been his first time on a boat, let alone his first storm and shipwreck. It would probably scar him to be paranoid about ships for the rest of his life…

"Akamaru!" Hinata's voice was evidently surprised, "Eh? Kiba's not with him either!"

It was then that Gaara saw a big white fluffy dog running towards them. It was a giant sized dog… Was that thing going to run them over or something? Oh wait, it was Inuzaka's dog. That dog. It took seconds for Akamaru to reach them, and even less to nearly bowl Hinata over with his licks and snuffles. Gaara kept his difference, preferring to keep his level of hygiene intact.

"Where's Kiba Akamaru? What… Happened? He didn't drown did he… Oh good… So where is- you got separated? No…? Oh… I see. You left him for a while then came back and he'd disappeared… I see… Yes… We'll find him."

Gaara blinked, after hearing the seemingly one-sided conversation.

"You know… dog speech?"

"Yes…" Hinata blushed, "I picked it up, quite a few years with Kiba and Akamaru did that."

"I see."

Akamaru then decided to trot up to Gaara. The dog opened his wide big jaws and… licked the Kazekage on the face. Hinata paled and called Akamaru back, reprimanding the dog while looking anxiously at Gaara. He, himself stood there. That… was an experience.

"I'm very sorry Gaara-kun, it won't-"

"I'm alright."

"Oh."

Akamaru had gone to the other side of Hinata obviously sensing that he had done something terribly wrong. Akamaru just didn't know how wrong. But fortunately Gaara let it go and wiped the saliva of his face. Disgusting yes, but not entirely something he loathed. He would let this slip… A few minutes passed before Hinata broke the silence.

"Do you have a precious person, Gaara-kun?"

Gaara paused for a moment, thinking. Did he? And besides that…

"Define a precious person."

"Someone…" Hinata struggled for a word, "Someone who you love, who is precious to you I guess…"

"No…"

Gaara replied truthfully or maybe not so truthfully. Did he have a precious person? There were his siblings but…

"Do you have a precious person?" Gaara turned the question back at the kunoichi.

Hinata blushed immediately, red tinting her cheeks, "Umm… Ah… Well…"

The look in the teenager's eyes implored Gaara not to ask further and Gaara complied. After all, he had a pretty good idea of who Hinata's precious person was anyway. And… Gaara looked down at Akamaru who was grinning widely at Hinata. He was pretty sure Akamaru knew too.

Mainly to change the subject, Hinata stated quickly, "You are a good person, Gaara-kun… I think."

Gaara's eyes slightly widened. Oh… That wasn't a common thing said to him. Normally, even after he had the Sand Demon taken out of him, he sensed that terms like 'evil', 'scary', and 'murderous' still clung to him.

"How can you be sure?"

Hinata blushed again, "You saved me last night. You could have left me to die… And well…" the teen blushed again, "I know."

Gaara decided not to say anything and let silence overtake them. Compliments to him were rare, very rare actually. He was a good person… She just knew? How… Strange. Even throughout his life, he still never even thought of himself to be a good person… Just more of a… What did he think of himself now? Shaking his head slightly, Gaara glanced back down at Hinata who was still blushing slightly, but overall looking slightly pleased with herself.

"Hinata."

The person who had been addressed looked up, startled. It was normally her who iniated conversation, not him.

"You… Are a good person also…"

"Not really," protested Hinata slightly while adding quietly, "I'm weak. I do not-"

"You are not weak."

Hinata looked up, color going to her cheeks again and the silence resumed again. But at least, as Gaara noticed, this wasn't an awkward silence. It was the silence he shared with his brother or sister during a walk…

"Gaara!" A blonde haired kunoichi, also known as Temari waved to both of them, "Hinata!"

Both knew that this was the end of their walk. They did not chatter away and say much to each other, but it was a start for a both. The start of a friendship? Gaara glanced down at Hinata before smiling slightly at his sister. To say that being together for a short period of time had been futile- would be a complete lie.

--------------------------------------------------

"There they are!" Tenten pointed to some figures in a clearing further off.

Neji followed Tenten's finger, and nodded. That was certainly them. Soon both shinobi were flitting through the dense jungle, approaching their destination quite quickly. The small group looked at them. How many were there…? The chubby ninja- Chouji… Naruto… Lee… The Inuzaka heir… Aburame Shino… Yamanaka Ino… The genius- Nara Shikamaru… that damn Uchiha… Haruno Sakura… The Sand Nin- Kankuro… That made ten, plus he and Tenten and that made twelve. So they were missing… Hinata and the other two Sand Ninjas.

"Neji!" His female team mate got his attention just in time- he was milimetres away from a tree.

The Hyuuga swallowed in embarrassment before jumping out of the way and continuing like it had never happened. Fortunately no one else had noticed and Tenten didn't look like she was going to make a big deal out of it. A thing he was grateful for though he would never admit it.

Both Tenten and he had swum to the shore of this island- they had used up all their chakra in their spar and getting out of the ship. This morning they had both searched the island, trying to find the other ninja who had been assigned to their mission with them. They were of course successful- as of now, that is.

The two soon reached the others, Tenten bounding away to join the other kunoichi, he, Neji just standing there, fading into more of a stoic stance. Lee walked up to him. What did that moron want now? Neji's eyes narrowed slightly. Lee flashed him the traditional good guy pose. Fortunately, the Hyuuga Heir had developed immunity to that pose a long time ago.

"Close shave Neji-kun!"

No… Lee actually saw… Neji winced inwardly. Hopefully, Lee wouldn't make a mess out of it… If that green-skinned idiot did-

"You just nearly hit that tree!"

A few heads turned and Neji visibly glared at Lee. Unfortunately, like Neji, Lee had gained immunity to that glare a long time ago.

"Idiot." The words were practically seethed out.

"He just crashed into a tree? What? Hyuuga Neji!" Sakura stood unbelieving, not hearing quite correctly…

Tenten, who was standing near the pink kunoichi, glanced at Neji, a smile on her lips.

The head of Kankuro turned and Neji saw the ninja smirk before turning back to doing something with his puppets. Neji struck his glare at the Sand Nin but unfortunately, like Lee, Kankuro had developed immunity to it. Maybe it was from Gaara? Damn. This wasn't turning out well.

"Who… Neji? He crashed into a tree? No way…" Shikamaru glanced at Neji, who was devoid of any signs of injury, "You don't look like you've crashed into one… No bruises… Nothing."

Good. Neji allowed himself to breathe easier. Yes- there was no evidence that he had crashed into that tree. No one would believe Lee now… At this point in time, Hinata, Gaara, and Temari walked in, completing the group. There was a small shout of excitement in the background as Kiba was reunited with Akamaru- but they stayed out of the limelight.

"OI OI OI! EVERYBODY!" Naruto jumped up excitedly, attracting everyone's attention like he always did.

Moron. What was he going to do- No, that was just wrong… The byukugen user paled. He wanted to kill somebody- now…

"NEJI-KUN CRASHED INTO A TREE ON PURPOSE!"

Every member of the group turned their heads to meet Neji's cool gaze. Most were smiling widely, giggling, snickering, smirking, or whatever form of cruel smile they chose to give to him. Tenten was chuckling- actually chuckling! How dare she… But if there was a silver lining to every crowd- at least there were all there… He desperately needed to get his reputation back… He needed a plan- Oh… Perfect. Smirking, Neji decided on his course of action.

Walking to the center of the group, the shinobi activated his Byakugen. The shinobi then proceeded to form hand seals. Hand seals that quite a few people in the group recognized… The hand seals for a jutsu that was for a whirlwind of chakra: A whirlwind of chakra that did a lot of damage to people in a certain radius around Neji. More people realized something too… Yes. They were all going to get whooped immensely by Hyuuga Neji if they… Didn't get the hell out of there. So they all did, get the hell out of there. And that, was how Hyuuga Neji got his reputation back.

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Chappie 3 Stayed up kind of late doing this… SO please enjoy!

THANKS AGAIN SO MUCH TO HACHINKO WHO REVIEWED!

-StarDragon X


	4. Chapter 4: Organization

Sorry this took SO long… The reasons… Let's see…

-Writer's Block

-Being Busy

-Laziness

-Being Very Busy

-More Writer's Block

Yup! There's we go: Your absolutely valid reasons for this chapter being late. Now that's cleared up and out of the way…

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Naruto. Note that 'I' doesn't refer to a name but to me, StarDragon X, and that 'Naruto' doesn't refer to Uzamaki Naruto but the anime and that this whole sentence is absolutely pointless. Yup Yup!

Anyway, read on, enjoy, and REVIEW!

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Shipwreck Chapter 4:

Organization

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata sighed upon from she sat on a tree branch. In the far edge of the small clearing, Temari looked fit to kill as she glared at Kiba-kun. Kiba himself seemed terrified out of his wits- Hinata had no idea why… Oh wait- the raven haired teenager sighed again upon remembering why Kiba-kun was in his current state of temperament.

Before the shipwreck yesterday, she had recalled Kiba laughing with Akamaru when he passed her down the hallway. Upon further remembrance, the heir also recalled that he had been twirling a key around his finger- Temari's room key…. She also remembered him saying sometime about throwing it overboard… Hinata sighed for the third time. Kiba could be such an idiot sometimes… The shinobi was jumping from tree too tree, weaving through the other ninja in the clearing as he tried to desperately escape the Kazekage's sister. No one lifted a finger to help the shinobi and the sound of a heavy thud followed by a wild yell was easily ignored.

Hinata shook her head. Kiba, Kiba, Kiba… When would he ever learn…? The teen glanced around the clearing where the other ninja on the mission were sitting, standing- or at least in some relaxed stance. Neji in the middle saying something… Hinata's head jerked up, and she quickly tuned her ears in to what was being said.

"We need to scour the island for food, water-"

"Oi! Oi! Oi!" Naruto jumped up next to Neji, a grin on his face.

Hinata swallowed and began to back off instinctively. Naruto-kun was a very special person... But he did have a tendency to be rash… Hinata only hoped that Neji wouldn't resolve this in the same way he had done the last time…. Most of the more unfortunate ones were sporting minor injuries and were none to amiable to Neji at the moment- she herself fortunately had no injuries. Immediately recognizing the hand seals that were being formed, Hinata had fled for safety quite long before Neji began to 'regain his reputation'. But back to Hinata's immediate fears for what Naruto-kun was just about to say…

"You," Naruto pointed a finger at Neji, "Aren't the one in charge! You're not the one highest in authority here! Guess who is?"

With that little statement, the container of the Kyuubi scampered back to a shady spot near a tree trunk, ready to flee if need be. Fortunately Neji only narrowed his eyes and walked through the group to stand beside Tenten. Hinata half smiled, wondering if there was something going on between the two- well, maybe, maybe not. Red momentarily blocked Hinata's vision for a few seconds before the kunoichi realized that from the low branch at which she sat that it was… Gaara's hair. Gaara had just walked past her, sand particles drifting through the air, following their master.

Of course. Being the Kazekage, it would be only natural for him to take charge. Silence seeped into the atmosphere as the teen walked into the middle. Gaara stood there for a few seconds, or rather to be much more exact, a few minutes, probably in thought before he spoke. Gaara finally lifted his head and opened his mouth. Every ear and eye was on him now.

"We need to divide up into four teams. Three teams of three and one team of six."

"What! He took that long to figure out just that!" half screamed the voice of Uzamaki Naruto.

"Idiot." came the general reply from most people, with Sakura-san's hand coming down heavily in the form of a punch on Naruto's head.

Hinata blushed, embarrassed for him. Even she sometimes wondered how much he had matured after his two and a half years leave for training…

"Are we going to be mainly divided up into our genin teams?" Nara Shikamaru asked, "Or something else…?"

"They will not be your genin teams." Answered Gaara smoothly.

"Why not in our Genin teams? After all each team has already been steadily balanced out," heads turned as Tenten entered the conversation.

Hinata nearly did a double take as she saw the kunai that was being deftly twirled around Tenten's forefinger. Most weapons owned by any shinobi in the group were currently and most probably… having a long nap at the bottom of the sea. But, then again, Tenten was, after all a weapon specialist, and it would only be natural for her to always be armed with something… Sadly everyone else, including her was not armed with something, thus the reason that so many people seemed to be staring at Tenten, or rather her weapon scrolls and her kunai.

"Why not in our Genin Teams?" Tenten repeated the question, mildly irritated by the stares.

"Because… Being stuck on this island, we are obviously going have to work with each other in a civilized manner," the red-haired shinobi gestured at Temari who was still glaring at Kiba, "I have put you into teams so that you will learn how to better cooperate with other people. And also because some people are better suited for some tasks then others and so on."

"The teams? Or the groups, or whatever you called them… What are they?" the words came from Sasuke, his slim figure sitting on a tree branch.

"For Food: Akimichi Chouji, Inuzuka Kiba, Tenten. For Water: Hyuuga Hinata," Hinata perked up upon hearing her name, "Nara Shikamaru, Uzamaki Naruto."

If Hinata had an Inner-Self like Sakura-san did, Hinata's Inner-Self would've done a victory dance in joy for being with Naruto-kun. But sadly Hinata did not have an Inner-Self so she did not do a victory dance in joy. Instead, the white-eyed teen let a hue of red creep up her cheeks.

"Hey! Why am I on water retrieval? That's the dumbest job ever! We'll be done in an hour! Let me go on scouting! My talents are wasted here!" Naruto's voice was heard very clearly throughout the small clearing.

A vein pulsed on Gaara's forehead. Naruto thought better of it. He then decided that he wanted to go on water. Naruto smiled at the Kazekage. On an extra note, Naruto didn't make any input for the rest of the conversations in that particular hour.

Getting water… Even the name sounded quite… unimportant and trivial. But Hinata pondered it a little more. Water retrieval meant getting enough water for fifteen people… Not the salt water from the sea either… So it was probably quite a big job…

"Scouting the Island: Uchiha Sasuke, Rock Lee, Temari."

Temari and Sasuke glanced at each other, giving a small sound of understanding. Lee-san decided to add in his good guy pose, an exuberant shout, and a rant on the flames of youth which everyone ignored.

"The rest of us are on shelter."

A few seconds past as the 'rest of us' figured out who they were and who was with them…

"WAIT A MINUTE!" shrieked Ino and Sakura at the same time, "WHY AM I STUCK WITH HER?" a pair of accusing fingers pointed angrily at each other.

Hinata shook her head, wondering if this wasn't one of Gaara-kun's better decisions… Though it was true that Ino-san and Sakura-san were quite good or even best friends…. They both tended to be… quite competitive at times.

Gaara ignored them and said, "When you have completed your task of finding food or water, or scouting, come back to this clearing. A guide will be marked with arrows for you to the shelter spot. Is everyone clear on what to do?"

Several voices or sounds of agreement come form various spots around the clearing, Hinata adding in a nod.

"Then let's get going."

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It had been almost inevitable that Chouji would be put in charge of food- or in charge of food gathering and finding to be exact. Unfortunately Akimichi Chouji… had absolutely no idea of whatever food there was to be found in this tropical island. He didn't even know if he would grow critically ill later from eating the strange fruit that he had in his hands. He wasn't even sure if what he was eating could be classified as a fruit…

The others in the group, Tenten and Kiba looked at him expectedly. He guessed Tenten had been chosen because of her deadly accuracy, a skill needed in hunting, and Kiba would be exceedingly useful in hunting down animals for meat. And him? He was probably chosen because he was always eating…What could he do…? Chouji swallowed. He only knew the difference between types of Konoha foods- not foods on this weird island. Wait a minute-

"I can cook!" he declared happily to the others.

Tenten blinked. This evidently wasn't what the kunoichi had been expecting. Kiba sighed.

"Yeah… But can you give us a hint or directions on which foods are poisonous or safe?"

"No… But I can cook!"

"I can cook." Pointed out Tenten, annoyed.

But then she had a reason to be in that temperament. Half the weapons that she owned were taken away and spread out between the other ninjas for defense. The weapons specialist had clearly been very irritated. But the most irritated one seemed to be Kankuro who had been given a gigantic scythe and kind of looked like an apprentice of a grim reaper. Chouji wasn't too happy with the weapon he'd been given either… The chubby ninja touched the hilt of the battleaxe that hung by his side. How did Tenten… carry that many weapons…? That… was just plain wrong. Chouji made a mental note not to anger the kunoichi- or do anything that might annoy her in the slightest.

"Tenten! Over there!" Kiba's urgent voice was followed by the sound of a kunai slicing the air and a soft thud.

"Got him!" smiling, the bun adorned kunoichi vanished for a moment before coming back with a dead pig in her hands.

Chouji's mouth started to water a little. Pig… That meant pork… That meant steamed pork buns… Roast Pork… Chouji shook his head and snapped out of his thoughts.

"Can I see the pig?"

"Go ahead," Tenten handed him the carcass after taking out her kunai and quickly cleaning it, "Be my guest."

Chouji examined the creature before him, trying desperately to look intelligent and look like he knew what he was doing… Chouji succeeded and made the following mental statements. At least this was an animal he was familiar with- a pig. But then, it wasn't exactly a pig… Maybe a boar with the tusks it had… No, not a boar… Too little… It was a boar-let… Damn. What was the name of a baby boar…? Wait. If it was a baby boar…

"Get into the trees you two!" yelled Kiba.

Yeah. The Inuzuka heir obviously had the same idea as him. Wherever there was a baby boar -Chouji jumped onto a high tree branch- there had to be a big fierce angry mother boar somewhere. It took a little while for Tenten to grasp onto this fact, but as soon as the kunoichi heard the noise of thundering hooves, she was in the trees. Kiba stayed behind, jumping onto Akamaru. Moments later, practically erupting out of the foliage was a massive boar, its tusks just about as long as an average human being. That was wrong… Very wrong.

But before the boar had time to start a wild stampede, Kiba acted quickly. The shinobi and his dog were soon high speed spinning things as they used 'gatsuga', and soon plummeted into the side of the wild boar. The creature crashed into a tree, nearly snapping the trunk in two, and Kiba jumped back, recovering from impact. Tenten jumped off the tree branch, and while still in midair, opened a scroll and sent a flurry of spears flying down at the pig. It was almost scary how good the kunoichi's accuracy was… All seven of the spears had hit the vital part of the animal- the boar's head. Chouji jumped down and driving his battleaxe into the boar, finished the creature off.

"That's a lot of meat…" he breathed, staring down at the mass of pork that was even bigger then Akamaru.

"Do you think we should drag it back? Or go after more boars?" Tenten poked the boar with her foot, "I'm not sure we can even carry this whole thing back…"

"Hah! Akamaru can carry it all, can't you?" Kiba grinned and glanced at the white dog beside who responded with a joyful bark.

It literally took seconds for them to all to load the meat onto Akamaru. The tusks were left behind though, as well as the bones. He chopped, Kiba sliced, Tenten diced. Yeah- they made a pretty good butchery, complete with the mass of the blood that seemed to be everywhere…. Even on them. Chouji shuddered- he'd better go wash up after all this. He didn't want to look like some kind of monster. Kiba sported a fair amount of blood, and Tenten somehow managed to end up with the least, though the kunoichi looked a little miffed about a dark stain on her black wader shorts.

"What's wrong anyway?" he asked, "That's tiny compared to Kiba and me!"

"Idiot!" groaned the older teen, "Have you noticed that we don't have the freedom of a lot of clothes here? We'll be wearing these clothes for a long time… Unless you still have your entire luggage! Stains are bad- very bad!"

Chouji shrugged. Women. He though that Tenten, the most tomboyish of the kunoichi wouldn't have minded blood but… Chouji shrugged again- women.

"Guys…? I know it's all fun to stand there arguing but…" Kiba pointed at a small herd of wild boars starting to advance on them from the underbrush, "We might wanna get out of here you know? It's just that small matter of having blood splattered all over us that's got them all riled up… We are so screwed up!"

Kiba's last sentence was virtually yelled as the ninja started running off, jumping onto Akamaru. He and Tenten just stood there, taking a while to know they the needed to get out of there and also comprehend that… Yeah. They were really screwed up.

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"NO! NO WAY! IT'S GOING TO BE BUILT HERE!" the voice of Haruno Sakura was heard clearly in the area.

"IT'S GOING TO BE BUILT HERE!" At the other side of the green clearing, Yamanaka Ino stamped her foot to emphasize her point.

Stupid forehead girl! The blonde seethed and brushed away a lock of hair. Ignoring the stares and sweat drops from the others, Ino continued her tirade on why the shelter housing should be built… on this particular spot of the clearing.

It was obviously really… Stupid Sakura wanted it built on the outskirts of the jungle… Over there would be too easy for any predators to come out and attack… While at her spot, far away from the jungle and close to the start of the hills, it would be hard for jungle predators to attack them. Ino smiled. Her spot was definitely the better choice!

Ino looked towards the nearest person to back her up. A white eyed shinobi with long black hair… Oh yeah! Neji! Ino turned her head towards him, smiling sweetly while her eyes were flashing dangerously- very dangerously. The Jonin swallowed, looking a little worried for himself.

"Neji-kun!" half sang the Chuunin, "Don't you think that we should build the shelter here?"

The Hyuuga wisely decided to pretend that he had not heard her and instead immediately started up a conversation with Kankuro. Ino's left eyebrow twitched.

"Neji-kun!" This time the words sounded very restrained, "Don't you think we should build the shelter here?"

Neji turned around- in a very slow manner… and smirked with faint relief on his face, "I believe Gaara has already decided."

As the older shinobi turned back to his conversation with Kankuro who seemed anxious about being caught in the middle of the two, Ino seethed. Who did that stupid Neji and Gaara-kun think they were…? Putting the shelter in a spot other then her spot! AND not agreeing with her! Ino looked around angrily, ready to strangle Neji- oh wait…. The shelter was going to be built in the middle of the clearing! At the other end, Sakura seemed to have similar feelings to Ino.

Gaara… Who cared if he was the Kazekage…? Who cared whoever he was! Both kunoichi stampeded at the same time towards the middle, towards Gaara, their thoughts and sentiments the same. Gaara-kun… needed some… special treatment… But then, just about meters away from the Sand Nin both kunoichi realized something.

This was Gaara- the Gaara who was Kazekage and all-powerful. The Gaara who had defeated Rock Lee while receiving only a few minor injuries… The Gaara who was going to be very scary if they did something negative towards him. Sakura paled. Ino paled. They stopped. They smiled. They beamed,

"I think this is a wonderful spot Gaara-kun!" and scampered off.

Gaara smirked, before saying, "The shelter's gong to be built here. Kankuro, Neji, get the wood."

Both Jonin nodded and were soon back carrying a few logs of timber between them. Setting it down near Gaara, both vanished again to get more. Ino sighed. Maybe, it wasn't that bad in the middle… Even though, of course her idea was still the best.

"I won! I won! I won! Hah Shikamaru! And you said I couldn't win!" the all too familiar voice of Naruto came from the outskirts of the jungle.

Ino frowned as she saw the yellow-haired figure advance… Naruto didn't seem… To be carrying any water at all…. All he had was an empty bag of nothing. In the distance she saw Shino's insects hurry to suck up water that Naruto had spilled.

"Um, Naruto-kun…" That would be Hinata.

"Idiot! If anything, I won. You haven't brought any water back at all! Hey, Gaara! Where do I put this!" the lazy voice of Shikamaru came next, a wooden box full to the brim of pure water on his back.

"Over here!" Ino gestured and after seeing Shikamaru walk so slowly added, "Lazy-bum!"

"Whatever!" Nara was followed by Hinata, the kunoichi carrying her water in a similar fashion.

Naruto by know had disappeared back into the jungle to get more water- Ino sighed as she saw the traces of damp patches on the ground where Naruto must have spilt his water- what an idiot he sometimes was…

"Where'd you guys find this? I don't think you could've boiled this from sea water…"

"You've got to see it, Ino-san; we found a huge lake up in the hills!" Hinata gestured the size with her hands, "The water, amazingly was really warm, I think it used to be a volcano."

Ino's eyes sparkled. Water… Lots of fresh water. Even after a few hours in this desolate island, the kunoichi was sweltering hot and badly wanted a shower or at least a bath of some sort. She had to get a chance to visit it!

"Ah, Ino-san?" Hinata gestured to where the males in the group were starting to put together a 'shelter', "I think you're needed over there!"

"Ah yeah!" Ino snapped out of her daydream of the lake, and hurried along, seeing the kunoichi jog off into the jungle, she added "See ya Hinata!"

Ino frowned as she saw Sakura half directing Neji were to put a log- That was her job! Not silly forehead girl's job! And besides… That log was oh so very unsuitable for that particular place. Idiot Sakura-san!

Though she was now thoroughly enraged, Ino kept her voice sweet- extra sweet as she barged in on the two, "Oi! Oh Neji-kun! Don't you think we should put that log somewhere else!"

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To be stuck with a deranged silent avenger and a hyperactive green-clad, bowl-hair cut idiot must have been… Hell for Temari. The Sand Nin was literally at her limits after just one minute. After ten minutes the kunoichi had decided she was going to go insane. Rock Lee kept urging them to hurry up and match his speed- a pace that was definitely impossible because who could match the speed of light? No one but Rock Lee. To make things worse, Uchiha Sasuke just ran, looked, and kept his mouth shut. Temari badly needed some human contact- contact with real humans that is.

"Hey! Temari-san! Sasuke-kun!" Lee pointed to a large black suitcase lying on the beach, "More supplies! YOSH!"

Temari sighed and stared at Lee- practically every time they came across something, Lee would decide to pick it up and add it to the huge pile on his back, classifying the object as a 'supply'. But at least with the suitcase the Lee was examining, it actually did look like it could be useful. A buckle was clicked open and Temari heard Lee gasp. The kunoichi, her interest perked wondered- what was inside…?

"Ugh… Idiot." The words were practically seethed out upon seeing the contents.

Temari glared at Lee who had tears of joy streaming down his face. That suitcase… contained… a huge big bunch of… It was almost too painful to say… It contained a huge big bunch of…

"Moronic green spandex…" with a glint coming into her eyes, Temari drew out her fan and forcefully whacked Lee on the head with it.

That felt good. The Chuunin went out like a light, his head immediately making contact with the ground. Sasuke came next to Temari and the brown haired teen felt the heir stiffen upon seeing what the suitcase held.

"That was a good idea." The Uchiha commented after glancing at Lee.

Before long the sixteen year old, struggled back to consciousness, his eyes slightly unfocused.

"You hit hard Temari-san…" murmured Lee, dizzily getting up.

The shinobi, with a sway in his movements, clicked the suitcase shut and started to carry it in his hand,"I think I'll take this along. I remember a few years ago, Naruto-kun wanted one… I'll see if he wants one now-"

Temari stiffened. Uzamaki Naruto… actually wanted one of those things… That was really…really… wrong! Taking hold of her fan once again, Temari swiftly knocked the suitcase out of Lee's hand and sent it flying into the ocean and far away.

Lee's eyes widened and started running after the suitcase, running speedily across the sea water, in great effort to receive his 'precious object'. Sasuke stiffened immensely; Temari let a vein throb on her forehead. She should've known that an idiot like him would have actually gone out and tried to get the suitcase- and being such a speedy thing, he would probably succeed.

Succeed Lee did- the ninja returned with the suitcase not even wet in his arms. Lee flashed Temari the good guy pose. Temari sighed but let it go. She might as well let the guy have it- if it meant so much to him…

Sasuke was already bounding away, heading back into the jungle. Temari followed suit, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. They still had a lot of ground to cover- the island was way bigger then expected. The three had covered the beach where they had all either washed up at or swam to after the shipwreck. A few corpses had been discovered but the general routine was to say a prayer of some sort for them before casting them out to sea. Temari swallowed upon remembering. But before the kunoichi could remember anymore a sudden shout got her attention.

"I've got the fruit!"

"I have the plants!"

"Let's head back! Akamaru and I have the rest of the meat and fur!"

Temari glanced to her left to see three shinobi and a dog. Inuzuka Kiba and his dog with masses of fresh meat, Akimichi Chouji with sacks of what looked to be fruits, and Tenten was holding green plants that didn't seem too edible in sacks…

"Tenten! Kiba! Chouji!" Lee grinned and caught up with Tenten, inspecting what she was carrying, "What are all these?"

"Hey Lee!" Tenten smiled but kept bounding, "Those are for what we think are for medicinal purposes and for general eating. Don't eat them, idiot!"

The teen swiped Lee's hand away from a plant with purple berries. Temari greeted them although Sasuke said nothing as expected.

"Where are you guys headed?" Temari took a sack of fruit from Chouji.

"Back to the shelters and everyone else," answered Kiba, "This is our last load for the day."

"How many loads did you guys do?" Lee asked curiously, "Three?"

Tenten, Chouji, and Kiba stopped and stared. Temari took that to be, "No. Absolutely not."

"We did ten loads, though this would have to be our smallest."

Ten… Temari's jaw nearly dropped to hit the ground. Ten! That was amazing... One thing was for certain- no one was going to starve here. They might all actually just get fat instead… How ironic that would be if that actually happened…

"Hey look! We're there!" Tenten called, Temari glanced at the kunoichi and for the first time noticed a blood stain on her black shorts.

The Sand Nin glanced at Chouji and Kiba- they too had blood, though in a much larger quantity. Temari grimaced, only just realizing how… gruesome they all looked. She really hoped those three would take a bath soon… But those thoughts were swept away when she saw the shelter site.

A big crude log house was in the middle of the clearing, with fires all around. Food was being cooked and the rest of the shinobi looked up as they arrived, greeting them warmly

"We'll have to leave the rest of the scouting for tomorrow I guess," Sasuke commented gesturing at the darkening sky- Temari nodded in agreement.

Surveying the grounds, Temari smiled faintly as she saw Gaara and Kankuro and after getting closer, finally wondered exactly what they were having for dinner. She was starving.

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Whee! You got through that. Anyways, I need to seriously ask… Are my chapters too long? They're on average around 3000 words and I think this chapter is just about 4000 (Normally should be around 3000 but this chapter's special! )… Hopefully I'm not putting anyone off. If I am, please tell me… OR- Maybe I should just take a segment of this chapter and make it into a chapter and hopefully I'm not confusing you. But basically, please tell me if my chappies are too long!

Thank you!

-StarDragon X


	5. Chapter 5: Hungry Savages

(**4/7/06- July 4th, 2006 UPDATE: **EEP! There was a big problem here, but I fixed it so it should be okay! If you don't know what the problem was, don't worry, but if you did, the chappies are in their proper place now! I'm REALLY sorry about that! Blame it on me doing this late at night- --. BIG thanks to Megaolix, Shukaku-chan and The Assassin of The Night for telling me this! Sorry guys!)

Hey All!

Yes, I know this is probably meant to be Chapter 6, but I just decided this to be chapter 5 because of various reasons! Yup Yup!

**DISCLAIMER: **No one else but the Japanese owner of Naruto owns Naruto. Further Note: StarDragon X is not Japanese.

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**Answering "Anonymous" Reviews...**

(Anonymous meaning those reviewers that don't have an account/let an email address so thus this is the only way to reply to their review...)

**hachinoko:** Thank youz!

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Thank Youz to hachinoko, Megaolix, The Assassin of The Night, Satoshi Silver Syoran, K.C., and swimtwins03

FOR REVIEWING!

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Special Thanks go to Megaolix and The Assassin of The Night for being the only ones to return with ideas for me! THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU GUYSSS!

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Finally, on with the story...

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Shipwreck Chapter 5:

Hungry Savages

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Shikamaru scowled from where he stood in the clearing. Here he was, in the middle of a large group of warring, excited, teenagers that, with a tiny push in his direction would probably stampede right over him. The black haired shinobi glanced around skeptical, half wondering if they would last for long on this desolate island. For the mature and reasonably powerful shinobi that they were meant to be, it was almost mind boggling to look at the scene revolving around the Nara.

In one corner, Ino and Sakura were peeling vegetables furiously in what looked to be a fierce competition. At the very centre of the clearing stood a gigantic fire pit where Sasuke was being pleaded to light a fire with his fireball jutsu. Temari still seemed not to be on complete amiable terms with Kiba and Rock Lee was running helter-skelter everywhere, trying to help but always hastily being turned down.

Shikamaru sighed but before any other thought had entered his mind, a kunai and some very strange looking fruits were dropped onto his lap suddenly. Annoyed, the Chuunin looked up and was greeted by the whiskered face of Uzamaki Naruto.

"Hey, Hinata-san wants you to peel these, Shikamaru!" and with that well placed statement the blonde ran off back to his duty of dropping similar looking plants on other people's laps and instructing them to do the same thing.

Hyuuga Hinata herself looked worried- it was obvious that the 'orders' weren't from her but from Naruto himself. Shikamaru shrugged and lazily began to take up the kunai in his right hand and sliced what he took to be a 'fruit that was so orange that it looked dangerous' in half. Seeing some juice spill out onto the ground, the Nara felt sorely tempted to lick it up like a dog and just stuff the fruit in his mouth, he was that hungry- but logic and sensibleness won over and the Chuunin put the fruit aside. Shikamaru looked to his left to see Gaara using his abilities over sand to cut the fruit up for him, without even moving once. The Nara sighed and started to actually wonder if they needed THAT much food.

At the rate they were going, the fruit would probably go to waste by the next morning due to the heat- but due also to the fact that they were all ravenously hungry and had not eaten anything for about day or so… The fruit probably wouldn't go to waste. After coming up with this conclusion in the matter of a few seconds, the Chuunin frowned upon quickly realizing how pointless those thoughts had been.

A few moments by and the teen was again cutting fruit, finding it somewhat pointless until… he was tapped on the shoulder. Shikamaru looked up, none to willingly as he was assuming that someone had brought him more fruit. Instead of Naruto's face, Tenten's face came into view. A suspiciously bright smile seemed to be plastered on the kunoichi's face as she greeted him.

"Hey Shikamaru," the words were half sang cheerfully- way too cheerfully.

Shikamaru focused his eyes away from Tenten, knowing that they would probably have a dangerous glint in them. He was already running through thousands of possible scenarios in his head of what she wanted- none of them seemed to be things he could look forward to.

"What do you want?" he replied bluntly.

The smile increased ten times in brightness, giving Tenten's face a somewhat eerie shiny glow, "I need just a little bit of water for to clean myself. This is also because of hygiene reasons and you wouldn't want us all to get a disease from me and die... would you?"

Shikamaru grimaced. Water- of course she'd go ask him... He was put in charge of retrieving 'Water' by Gaara much to some kind of annoyment by Naruto and so now this title of 'Head of Water Retrieval' gave him the 'pleasure' of entertaining people like Tenten who wanted water...

"I doubt you can catch a disease from... blood," Shikamaru sighed as he prepared himself to block whatever attack the kunoichi wished to bestow on him, "Besides, can't you go take a bath tomorrow? Go to the lake or something."

Tenten blinked, pondering the situation and trying to piece together a come back that would catch a genius (a.k.a. Shikamaru) with an IQ of 200 off his guard... Just under what you would call impossible, of course. Shikamaru smiled and went on,

"Besides that, I thought you weren't like Ino and Sakura... You know, vain, prissy, and all that... But now, with this mention of all this unneeded actions, I think I might have to reconsider what I think of you."

Shikamaru allowed himself to smirk for a tiny moment before he saw a flash of metal being produced. But luckily, probably the first time he had been lucky since the shipwreck, a huge ruckus resounded from the other side of the clearing. Both Chuunin glanced over, attention on the current dilemma gone temporarily.

Kankuro was fending of a wild horde of ninja...? What the hell was happening over there? Bah. Who cared anyway? He'd probably find out soon enough, and besides... Shikamaru grinned as he saw Tenten running towards the crowd. He definitely wasn't going to die death by 'rage of Tenten' anytime soon... and that was good enough to keep him satisfied for a while.

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"GET AWAY WILL YOU! AWAY!" screeched Kankuro, clutching a bag to his chest.

Screeching may not have been considered manly behavior but in at this particular time and moment, Kankuro did care at all. What he did in fact care about was the many people crowding around him, some screaming or shouting- all clamoring for the rare and wanted apparent 'treasure' he held...

A survival kit. That same survival kit that he retrieved from that boat that Aburame Shino had been on. By some cruel twist of fate, everyone had noticed the survival kit in his hands, but not the other on that had been stored somewhere by Shino. Why him? The Puppet Master was sorely tempted to use some form of violence to resolve the matter but Karasu and his other war puppets were broken and he wasn't skilled enough in his other ninjutsu or taijutsu of whatever jutsu to overpower the others. So instead, Kankuro resorted to screeching and shouting loudly.

"THIS IS MINE!" he retorted loudly, fending off with his arm an eager Haruno Sakura who seemed to be looking eagerly at the hygiene supplies of shampoo and soap that might be found in the kit.

"Well you'd need to give us any cooking equipment, right? So open up that kit! Let us have a look!" Kiba's loud voice came from behind Kankuro, the Inuzuka riding upon his white dog.

Kankuro started to reply but was stopped by another question of, "Why don't you just open it up, so we can just grab what we want and be happy?"

That came from Yamanako Ino. Kankuro grimaced as he imagined several wild idiots pushing and shoving at each other- that would be absolute chaos, and also be for nothing… He'd probably need the Medical Ninja, Sakura to go heal his inevitable critical injuries afterwards... Kankuro's eyes narrowed indignantly as he saw Temari chuckling, the seventeen year old standing at the edge of the crowd and Gaara was smiling benevolently at him. Kankuro scowled and glared at Shino who was sitting far off, a smirk on his face. The Aburame's own survival kit that he'd retrieved from the lifeboat was suspiciously missing... Kankuro scowled again. How did he get this UNLUCKY?

"You don't need to get so anxious about it, "pointed out Neji, "After all it's ONLY a bag."

"If it's only a bag then why are you, the distinguished Hyuuga Neji, in the middle of this horde?" shot back Kankuro and after bending his knees, leapt into a nearby tree.

"What's this about then?" a confused female voice broke through the throng of voices of the others and caused the noise level to drop.

Kankuro sighed in relief. He didn't know what that kunoichi did, but she brought silence... thankfully. He was on the verge of going insane. Tenten herself seemed even more confused on the effect her statement had caused, and looked around.

"Umm... Did I come at a wrong time?"

The babble of voices came again, each or most individuals trying to tell Tenten what was going on with exaggerated gestures and movements. Kankuro took this moment to bound off the tree quietly and left the survival kit in plain open view, a little way off from the noisy crowd behind him. The Sand Nin noticed that Nara Shikamaru was watching him, but then again the Nara would probably be too lazy to tell anyone so it didn't matter.

Another few silent bounds and Kankuro was back at his original position on the tree- and just in time too. For in that precise moment was the moment that Tenten actually comprehended the chatter and the babble of voices that came at her all at once. Hyuuga Hinata blinked at him, as if she was suspicious of him vanishing a few moments ago. Kankuro tried his best innocent face and turned to address the crowd who by now had their attention back at him.

"It's not fair, keeping a bag like that for yourself!" yelled Naruto, pumping a fist in the air.

"Idiot," retorted Uchiha Sasuke "Is your night vision that bad? He doesn't even have the survival kit with him."

Kankuro sighed and finally decided on a course of action after he had questions of...

"Where's the bag!"

"What have you done with it idiot!"

"Can we please try to be civilized here?" exploded Kankuro, a hand gripping the tree trunk for support.

Silence. A rich feeling of power coursed through Kankuro's veins as he saw the eyes on him. He had half a mind to laugh evilly, he was that close to insanity… But self-discipline kept Kankuro sane.

"I don't have the bag. Or the kit or whatever you call it. The bag is over there."

Several pairs of eyes followed Kankuro's pointed finger. Brains clicked. Brains clacked. Light bulbs lit up in brains.

"I'll get for you Sakura-chan!" cried Rock Lee, acting first.

Several voices came after, each declaring the bag for his or herself, or in the case of Rock Lee, for 'Sakura-chan'. Kankuro sighed and shook his head. How did they all get so worked up over one, small, cloth, bag? True enough, they had seen the words 'Survival Kit' boldly printed on it and probably thought that any pots and pans it might have would be exceedingly useful for cooking. Some might want the objects of personal hygiene and personal convenience that any survival kit contained… But really…. As ninja they should be able to survive which such things… And besides that-

But Kankuro had no more time to ponder that last thought as he saw the white survival kit disappear under a mass of shinobi and kunoichi. A fight almost ensued for the one who would open the bag, Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke on the outskirts looking like they though the rest were idiots. Tenten and Hyuuga Hinata were standing there looking a little awkwardly, listening to the shouts and yells. The shinobi's knuckles turned white as he gripped the tree trunk even harder, seeing Naruto slowly start to under the buckles which kept the survival kit closed. A small cry of excitement was heard as the buckles were finally done, and Kankuro still gripping the tree trunk tightly, started to hear the following statements…

"Yes! Finally open! Okay, inside we have- what the hell!"

"What… What's happened? Let me have a look- Damn…!"

"Give me it! What are you all yelling about, I mean- Oh."

"This can't be real… This is so damn-"

More shouts ensued and even Temari, Gaara, and Shikamaru slowly walked over to see what this new problem was…

Kankuro swallowed.

All that yelling was mainly because of a lot of misjudgment and misinterpretations of a simple cloth bag with words printed on it.

And, now all those people who yelled and shouted had just figured out that their previous thoughts and interpretations were wrong- very wrong.

You see, that white survival kitbag had…

Absolutely nothing in it.

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"Pass me that pot, Chouji!" Kiba called before turning in an opposite direction and yelled, "Get that hunk of meat Akamaru!"

A pot came flying through the air and Akamaru soon dropped his ordered object on the ground before Kiba before running off to go help Chouji with something else. Kiba grinned, wondering how good his culinary skills were. He actually didn't ever mind eating meat raw, but he when he did eat it raw once, well his mother seemed to be… quite displeased with him to say the least.

Anyway, that wasn't what he was here for now, he was meant to roast the pork or something like that… The brown haired shinobi smirked as the figure of Kankuro caught his eye. The Sand Nin was somewhat sullenly giving out objects from a survival kit, half snarling at anyone who came near. Gaara finally made some kind of speech, transforming them into the civilized people they were meant to be and finally found the real survival kit. Apparently Kankuro was going to use the empty survival kit to store his broken puppets, or something like that…

Kiba thrust a stick into the hunk of meat before him and placed it on two sticks on parallel sides of the fire before him. A few meters away Sasuke was blowing more flames from his mouth to start another fire, Sakura beside him. The pink haired kunoichi wasn't at all a 'Sasuke fan girl' anymore, and he no doubt knew that the Uchiha had indeed noticed it- whether this was causing him to have romantic feelings for the female, Kiba didn't know, he wasn't going to find out, and he really didn't care.

What Inuzuka Kiba really did care about was that… he had no idea of how to cook. The pork roasting quickly over the fire seemed to be on the verge of bursting into flames and the teen had an extreme urge to just rip the food of it's stick and eat it as it was, raw, scorching hot, and bacteria ridden, he didn't really mind. A few moments later, the desires to eat overcame Kiba and after a grumble form his stomach, the fifteen year old bit into the pork in front of him.

His tongue was scalded instantly but he didn't care. He took another bite- the flavor was divine, the-

A forceful blow snapped Kiba out of his thoughts and his mouth away from the meat. A vein pulsed on the the heir's head.

"WHY YOU- Oh. Hi there… Ino-san." Kiba chuckled nervously, "Just a little taste test…"

"IT WAS SO NOT A TASTE TEST!" The blonde's eyes bulged angrily, and then she did something much unexpected.

She picked the meat off the ground took a huge bite and grinned at him, "This is a taste test!"

And with that, the Yamanaka finished chewing and swallowed it down. Kiba growled angrily.

"WHAT THE HELL! DAMN YOU STUPID-"with a wolfish grin on his face, the Inuzuka broke of mid-sentence and took a bigger bite of the meat.

It turned into something of a competition, both taking bigger and bigger bites of the meat until-

"Kiba-kun! Looks like you need help!"

Concentration broken, the heir gave a start and turned around... He had strong feeling he was repeating this very action from earlier on in the day. Yeah, he was. And the dreaded person he was going to see was the very same person from earlier on. Rock Lee.

At the corner of his eyes, the heir saw Ino walking away, the pork in her hands and a triumphant grin on her face.

Inuzuka Kiba hoped dearly that the person before him just really wasn't going to feel helpful at that particular moment… Inuzuka Kiba, oh so sadly, oh so unfortunately, was very very wrong.

"Okay! Let's cook!"

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"We must use our flames of youth to the fullest extent!" the all too familiar and recognizable voice came from the infamous Green Beast of Konoha- Rock Lee.

"NO! DON'T YOU DARE DO THAT!" the furious yell of Inuzuka Kiba went unheeded as Lee dumped a large portion of herbs over the sizzling hunk of meat.

A good majority of the herbs were brunt to a cinder in a matter of split seconds as they were eaten by the hungry red flames. Lee heard a moan from the teen beside him as the brown haired shinobi saw how much herbs had been wasted. Lee shrugged, if they really needed d more of those funny green plants, he'd go and fetch them himself.

Right now, the current task was to cook the meat before him, and that, was what Lee could do with a lot of gusto and energy.

"Pass me those berries, Hinata-chan!" called Lee.

The Hyuuga heir looked at him surprised and stared at the berries in her hands as if he was kind of… strange.

"But Lee-kun… these berries are poisono-"

But fortunately Lee had no more time to direct his attention towards Hinata-chan as…

"Hey, Lee, you know you're meant to rotate the meat right…? The undersides going to get burnt soon if you don't…" a mildly worried voice of Yamanako Ino came from behind him.

Lee glanced at the person who had spoken, and after flashing the teenage girl super white dazzling smile, proceeded to rotate the pork… Rock Lee style. Rock Lee style could be described as spinning a hunk of meat so fast that a large amount wind was produced by the spinning motion. This a huge amount of wind power somehow fueled the hungry flames with its main food source, air, and thus the flames grew bigger and bigger until-

"O MY GOD! PUT THAT FIRE OUT!" a hysterical yell came from Ino as the blonde turned around to find a blazing inferno in front of her.

"What? What's wrong…?" Kiba turned his head slowly round and…

Made a total '0.o' face before screaming, "LEE YOU COMPLETE IDIOT!"

Unfortunately, Lee, who was really getting into his task, just couldn't hear the yells directed to him, or even notice how… very dangerously big the fire was. The pork by now was speedily turning black, but the intelligent, observant, and honorable Rock Lee did not notice that either. What he DID notice was the fact that air was beginning to turn a little hot. But, that had to be accepted- after all, wasn't this a tropical island?

"Whew… Is it just me or is it getting hot…?" the sixteen year old had fallen into the rhythm of rotating the pork at its high speed and now decided to didn't need to concentrate so much of himself into the task.

But as our loveable Lee-kun had lowered his concentrated on his task, our loveable Lee-kun also noticed all these ninja that he knew were running around like idiots and yelling wildly.

"What's- what's going on?" his voice almost sounded drowsy as he talked to Hinata.

"Umm…" but before the teen could work out exactly what to say, Neji's cool voice did it for her.

"Idiot. You've made the fire too big." and with the well placed statement, the Hyuuga launched a gallon of water straight at him, via a wooden bucket.

That amount of water alone wasn't enough to distinguish that burning fire of course. But, combined with such encouraging shouts of,

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AFTER THIS!"

"IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOOOOOOOOT!"

"YOU'VE BURNT ALL OUR FOOD!"

And so, with many other buckets of water, that great big burning fire just had to give up and turn into ash. Lee blinked as he saw the huge group of shinobi, the huge group of glaring angry shinobi around him. Gai-sensei had once told him that, if, in any situation he got stuck and needed to resort to diplomacy, the 'good guy pose' would solve it all.

And Lee, being Rock Lee, protégé of Maito Gai, ALWAYS listened to his sensei and so… Lee stood up straight beamed at them all and flashed… the 'Good Guy Pose'. There was a moment of silence. Lee presumed with an optimistic attitude that this silence could be interpreted as the shocked understanding silence that meant they all were gong to treat him like some kind of king or Hokage. But unfortunately, Lee had really overestimated the powers of his infamous 'Good Guy Pose' and so the silence really should have been interpreted as…

The silence, the deadly silence, the very deadly silence before a raging storm. After a few painfully long moments, Konoha's beautiful green beast finally realized exactly WHAT he had done. The 'what' was basically the wooden lodge charred and just not burnt, the others with minor burns and bruises, but the worse thing was…

Lee's eyes widened enormously. The food. The food was all gone… GONE! GONE GONE GONE! To be clearer, the food had been devoured by the fire. Thus, there were now fourteen very enraged teenagers standing around him. Three of that group of fourteen seemed enraged to point of enraged insanity and they of course were- Inuzuka Kiba, Tenten, and Akimichi Chouji. A feelings of impending doom infiltrated Rock Lee's mind.

A moment went by. The feeling of doom grew. Sakura-chan's anger seemed to triple. Another moment went by.

Then, that is when the huge treacherous storm broke loose. The language heard by far exceeded the rating 'R, and thus had to be removed from this story. The sixteen trembled as he watched the rampage get closer and closer to him. He should have actually moved away, but fear. Lee braced himself for impact.

The impact came. Over a dozen pairs of feet trampled over the poor teen- but none of those pairs of feet stopped to do more damage. Instead the whole group seemed to be more interested in the scorched black object behind Rock Lee. Yes- that poor decimated piece of pork that Lee had been TRYING to cook. Note the great emphasis put on the word 'trying'.

For alas, that poor wee piece of pork didn't even look like a piece of pork. It looked far from edible; it looked far from anything anyone had ever seen… It was just a black…thing. And yet, as Rock Lee looked up wearily from his trampled state, he blinked… He goggled. For every single one of those fourteen previously enraged shinobi were not turning around to kill him but they were… tearing, ripping, gorging…

Eating.

Rock Lee blinked. Even the most distinguished and stoic of the group looked and acted like wild animals as they sought to deplete their hunger with a charred piece of meat. Yeah… the females, the males, they all seemed to be humanoid beasts- wild beasts.

Indeed, they were all eating like a bunch of hungry savages.

* * *

Chapter 5… Done! Sorry this is about a day or two late (for the weekly update), but then I figured its better to give you guys a full chapter a day late rather than have it on time and have the writing really scrappy.

I get writer's block frequently (when you can't think of ideas/what to write etc.) so ANY ideas are fully appreciated and are most likely to be put into the story or given at least a lot of thought! And if you DO contribute, you'll get mentioned in the next chapter and I'll '' you!

Second Lastly, I know I'm not the greatest of writers so if you see anything wrong/don't like something in ANY part of the story, etc. PLEASE tell me as I actually WILL go back and change these things no matter how big or small… 0.o Yeah, I know, I'm beginning to be a writer fanatic…

Lastly, THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading this chapter and bothering to actual read this far! Thank you! Read and… maybe review?

Till Whenever,

StarDragon X

(NEXT CHAPTER: DEPENDS ON RECEIVED FEEDBACK!)


	6. Chapter 6: Perverts At The Lake

(**3/7/06-June 3rd, 2005 UPDATE:** This used to be Chapter 5 but now is Chapter 6! So if you're looking for the 'new' chapter, go to chapter 5! )

Hello y'all!

Oooo! By looking at the chapter title down below… Yeah… You'd probably have a pretty good idea of what this chapter's about don't you…? This is against my better judgment for some strange reason but I'll do it…I need to write something… weird.

(OH YEAH! SORRY FOR THE SUPER LATENESS OF THIS!)

* * *

Naruto Shipwreck Chapter 6: 

Perverts at the Lake

* * *

Haruno Sakura tentatively approached the sleeping form, tension arising in her thoughts. Hopefully Tenten-san wouldn't mind the early morning wake up call… The Chuunin crept forward, being careful not to step on Shikamaru who had been sharing night watch with Tenten. The two ninja were volunteered by the group to stay up as 'night watch'- relatively meaning so no 'evil monster' could go attack them during the middle of the night. However… Sakura frowned reproachfully- both of them had fallen asleep! Sakura sighed and quickly brushed those thoughts away as she concentrated on the task beforehand. 

"Tenten?" Sakura bent down so her soft voice could be heard by the kunoichi but also not by anyone else- meaning the several teenage boys who were snoring their heads off inside the log cabin.

No luck. Sakura sighed. Just the other morning she had the alarming task of waking Sasuke-kun up… Today she had the even more alarming task of waking Tenten-san. She knew there was no reason to be afraid… But… Sakura glanced at Tenten's sleeping form.

The sixteen year old was sitting against the charred (thanks to Lee) wall of the wooden lodge that they had made yesterday, holding a particularly fearsome looking katana in a tight grip as she slept. She didn't want to get her head cut off if Tenten-san actually didn't want an early morning wake up call…

"Hurry up forehead girl!" Ino's voice was just barely a whisper, "We haven't got all day!"

The kunoichi was at the end of the clearing waiting impatiently, tapping her foot to show her current temperament. Temari was there, fan strapped on back and Hinata was leaning against a tree. Sakura reddened and ignored the blonde, swallowing down a retort. They had been planning to go to the lake that Hinata had talked about yesterday to go bathe off all that repulsive dirt and grime and also just to relax.After all, most of them, especially herself (waking up to find she was on a desert island didn't help), had been traumatized somewhat by the alarming truth of being shipwreck. It may be true that as ninja, they should to adapt to any situation, but doing was harder then saying. So they were going to the lake at around an hour after the sun had risen.

Why so early in the morning? Because Temari was pretty sure if they were to go at a sane hour, the boys in the camp would turn into Peeping Toms. Thus meaning that…

Sakura had to go wake Tenten up. Gathering courage, the kunoichi whispered,

"Hey! Tenten! Tenten-san!"

Luckily, the attempt worked. Unluckily, Sakura was scared out of her wits as Tenten leapt out of her sleeping state, katana in hand, the katana just about ready to slice Sakura's head off. Sakura opened her mouth to scream, but remembered where exactly she was and swallowed it down. Tenten blushed, and brought the worn sword down. Sakura took a deep breath- she probably was going to be traumatized for life….

"Ah… Good, good morning, Tenten-san!" Sakura started, frozen in place after seeing the katana so close to her neck, "We're going to the…"

"The lake on the island," finished Temari, anxious to hurry the conversation up, "Take a bath... You know, before… they wake up."

The Sand Nin gestured to the wooden hut and at Shikamaru. Tenten nodded, understanding spawning on her face along with pure delight. Sakura understood why after taking a glance at the kunoichi. The older teen was sporting so many dark red blood stains on her skin and clothes (courtesy of butchering wild rabid boars) that she was on the verge of looking like something out of a horror movie. Sakura herself remembered the kunoichi half pleading for extra water from Shikamaru to get the stains off. Shikamaru unfortunately refused.

Ino at the moment was speedily carving away on a nearby tree trunk, drawing the attention from the others. Ino grinned upon completing whatever she was doing and Temari glanced over the Chuunin's shoulder,

"A message?" after she had finished reading, the Sand Nin frowned, "Do you really think that you should've told them where… we're going?"

Ino shrugged, "Who cares? Let's goooo-"

The blonde's enthusiastic shout was cut short but the sound of a hand clamping a certain mouth shut- Temari's hand to be exact. Sakura shook her head, not believing how Ino-pig still had energy. They only had a few bites eachoff a black charred piece of pork and then they dropped off to sleep immediately, exhausted.

"Let's go?" Ino's smiled nervously up at Temari, repeating her sentence in what could be described as 'whisper form'.

Temari muttered something that sounded very much like, "Idiot."

Tenten by now had already made sure that the boys were still asleep- the kunoichi found a just waking Naruto but sent him back to dreamland with a blow on the neck. Sakura's Inner immature self, not that anyone could see, was celebrating in joy for the mess up that Ino made… Hinata was just scared that the whole encampment would wake up.

It wasn't long before the group of five kunoichi was traversing speedily across the jungle terrain, Hinata leading the way. Sakura noticed with interest that once in a while, the raven haired teenager would activate her Byukugen, and scan the area. The reason was probably to keep a good look out for anyone, who might just decide to 'accidentally' drop in on their bathing session. Sakura, shrugged, unworried- if someone like Naruto came… he'd go flying into the sky with shrieks of "PREVERT!" ringing throughout the air.

Besides that, in the deepest darkest hollow of Haruno Sakura's huge great big mind… well, Haruno Sakura probably wouldn't care or mind if any boy (other then Naruto) came in to peek… In fact, she probably would enjoy the attention- and that came from both Haruno Sakura's Inner AND Outer Self.

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On the morning after the morning that a certain prodigy had woken up on a particular desolate island after a shipwreck an extremely all too familiar and very infuriating voice just happened to be on the wake up call duty for the that same prodigy- who was also known as...

"SASUKE-KUN! GET UP!" yelled the very well known voice of…

Guess Who…? Uzamaki Naruto- the yellowed haired, fifteen year old moron. Sasuke opened his eyes slightly and winced as the bright morning sun hit his eyes harshly. Damn it was bright… Wait a minute… How did he get outside? Sasuke looked around quickly, and to his horror, was being dragged out into the open by Naruto.

The heir immediately kicked out and quickly stood up, whacking Naruto on the head as he did so. What an idiot... Sasuke then also found that he was the center of attention- with nine other familiar ninja watching him with great amusement. A vein pulsed on his forehead. Turning, seething towards Naruto, Sasuke made a punch with great force upon the head of poor Uzamaki Naruto.

"Idiot." seethed out Sasuke.

The others wisely took this as a sign not to show their amusement- that didn't mean they weren't still privately amused of course. Sasuke glared at each individual while adjusting his forehead protector… they all were idiots…

"What do you all want anyway?" he asked, annoyed.

Rock Lee, enthusiastic as always, jumped in, "The girls have gone off to the lake on the island! It is our duty to rescue them from the jaws of impending death! Especially Sakura-chan and Tenten-san!"

Upon saying the last sentence, the taijutsu specialist gave Sasuke a disturbing thumbs up with a flashy white smile to go along with it. Sasuke looked to someone else, dubiously.

"It's true! It's true!" continued Naruto, grinning amiably while still rubbing his sore head.

Sasuke looked to someone else again, even more dubious then before. Naruto and Lee were both morons… ninety-percent of the time. He severely doubted if anything they said could be trusted, even if they had matured somewhat from the two years they'd been apart. He looked on to the rest, but he knew that other than Lee and Naruto, the rest were more or less apathetic to him and not that willing to communicate with him. After all, betraying Konoha wasn't something someone would forget easily…

Finally, Kiba spoke up, "Yeah it's true… See?"

The teen pointed to where words were carved on a tree trunk. The words read something alone the lines of,

"Don't worry; we're off to the lake that was found yesterday! Don't come after us… perverts!"

Sasuke scowled. What did that have to do with him…? The only girl he really knew was Sakura… and… well… he wasn't a pervert like the rest! But the faint image of a Sakura bathing naked in the water seemed to appear in his mind. Sasuke brushed that thought away quickly, almost regretfully…

"What does that have to do with me…?" he retorted.

Kiba shrugged, "Just thought you'd like the opportunity. It's a one in a lifetime chance."

A sweat drop formed at the side of Sasuke's head as he put two and two together and stared at the group of ninja in front of him…

"Do you mean you're all going to go and..."Sasuke trailed off, a little surprised…

Naruto and Kiba, yes, they were the type to do that kind of thing but… The Uchiha glanced at Gaara, Shino, and Neji… They wanted to do that too! That was very out of character… It was extremely wrong… Well- the things he never knew until now… and the things he didn't want to know either!

"I'm not going." stated Gaara, quickly, causing great relief to flood through Sasuke.

That was more like Gaara from his limited knowledge. Kankuro shook his head from where he sat on a tree branch, "Neither. I have my pride… And I 'm not… that type of person."

The seventeen year old glanced meaningfully at the rest with a clear look of disdain on his features.

"I am not going to look at those beautiful maidens!" retorted Lee, "I am going to make sure no one goes near them! And Neji-kun is helping me too… Right?"

The Hyuuga family member looked away from his team mate, refusing to answer that question. Lee seemed to take that as a yes.

"I'm not going either." Aburame Shino's voice seemed to be faintly indignant that anyone would actually think HE would be going on this frivolous escapade.

"Ah… I'm not going… It's too troublesome… And I don't take joy in getting beaten up if I get caught…" came the lazy voice of Nara Shikamaru.

The Chuunin was playing with a blade of grass in his hands, sitting against the wooden lodge.

"Ino probably wants you to come and peek!" cried Naruto, dragging the Chuunin up off the ground by the scruff of his shirt, "Come on let's go!"

Sasuke blinked- yes, that Ino girl… She would probably gladly strut around nude for all the boys to gape at her… That didn't mean he was going to go… Sasuke watched as the small group left the clearing, some of the shinobi saying farewells and some… not. In the distance, Sasuke heard faint yells and shouts from that same group of perverted Konoha teenage boys.

Looking back at where he was, Sasuke saw that… Gaara was meditating; Shino was examining the local insects, Kankuro repairing his puppets and he- Uchiha Sasuke? What was he doing-?

Damn… Sasuke took a single leap and bounded into the jungle, following the trail left by the ninja who had just left…. He was probably going to really regret this later but… to hell with it! He was going to the lake.  
--------------------------------------------------

After many hours in a sweltering hot climate and many hours with blood all over you… Warm, clean, water must have felt like paradise to Tenten. The kunoichi had her eyes closed and was currently floating on the lake's surface, enjoying the steam that enveloped her like a blanket. Her clothes had been washed in the water long ago and were now drying on a tree somewhere… Temari had finished bathing long ago and had volunteered herself for guarding the lake- Sakura was off in another part of the lake with Ino, Hinata at the far end, and she herself at this end.

A kunai was held in one hand while the other hand scrubbed blood off her left leg. Her brown hair was floating all around like an angel halo- Tenten had let it down, seeing no need to keep it up. Yes- this was close to paradise- other then the fact that she was close to being starving, but nonetheless, it was quite close to paradise...

A suspicious rustle in the trees and Tenten dived into the water, wary of just who might have caused that sound. A few moments later, the Chuunin peeped out from where she was, wet hair plastered to her skin. A flash of green spandex immediately alerted her and a flash of white made a vein pulse on her forehead. Lee-kun and Neji-kun… They were going to have death by… Tenten ran various gruesome death scenes of the two through her head, trying to find one that would be most suitable.

Swimming speedily towards her clothes, the kunoichi then flung them on and grabbed her scroll of weapons. As an after thought, she left an illusion of herself on the lake- Neji would probably figure it out but at least it would gain her some time to hunt them down with them running away and declaring themselves to be innocent. It took a minute or so for Tenten to track down and find the two perverts.

Upon approaching them, Tenten realized with a start that Neji had activated his Byukugen. Damn- the sneak attack had to be forgotten. Tenten didn't care though, as she strode angrily towards her team mates. Neji turned around, as if he was expecting her, but Tenten noticed a faint hue of red up his cheeks. The sixteen year old blinked- that wasn't very Neji-like… Wait.

His byukugen was activated and he was looking at her…. That meant… Didn't that mean that…he could see through her clothes? Another vein pulsed on Tenten's forehead as she took another step forward, a new feeling surging through her blood.

For once in her whole entire life, she was actually daring to go against the object of her admiration and affections. She was actually daring to lay a finger on him… What was up with her? Shouldn't she, according to her characteristics, not be caring at all if Neji had been staring at her naked (Lee was another matter)? But she was caring and-

"Oh, hi Tenten-san! I'll be leaving you two!" Lee starting to run off but not before Tenten had the chance to kick him and send him flying through the air.

She turned back to Neji. The Jonin swallowed.

"PERVERT!" she shrieked.

That was a first… getting angry with Neji… In fact, calling him a pervert just didn't seem right… but Tenten went on, fumbling around for her kunai.

"This is all a mistake Tenten." answered the Hyuuga smoothly, though there still seemed to be very faint hue of red tinting his cheeks.

"You and Lee were staring at me while I was bathing!" retorted Tenten.

"I wasn't staring." replied Neji, "I was trying to prevent Lee from 'rescuing' you from the jaws of death."

"Liar- Perverted liar." Seethed Tenten, and curled her fist into a punch.

But even as the fist made its way towards Neji, the byukugen user easily side stepped the punch. She could have actually used a kunai but the weapon's specialist for some odd reason, angry though she was, didn't want any chance of actually hurting Neji-kun.

"I. Am. Not. A. Pervert." The worlds were clipped and short.

"Then how does hiding in bushes verify your innocence?"

"I wasn't looking."

"How truthful." came the sarcastic reply.

Tenten sighed, deciding to let it be. She guessed she should be punching or kicking him in the face shrieking and screaming… But then she doubted if she could even actually land a punch on him… The kunoichi gave another sigh and started to tie up her hair in its usual hairstyle, turning away from the protégée beside her.

Tenten closed her eyes briefly in thought… For most of her life he had been the direct center of her admiration. Then came her affections for him with grew as they trained together each day… On the boat she was suddenly feeling jealous of Neji…Then just a few moments ago, extremely angry with him (a once in a lifetime thing)… What did she actually currently think of Hyuuga Neji?

Tenten sighed for a third and final time as she finished pinning up a bun and turned to look at Neji, who was waiting patiently for her.

Who was Neji to her?

She really was beginning to have no idea.

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Uzamaki Naruto had gone on an approximate two and half year training program with the Legendary Sannin and pervert- Jiraiya. Uzamaki Naruto had returned… stronger (strong enough to bring back Sasuke-kun), maturer (to some extent), and very much more… perverted. Yes- perverted. Most people blamed it on Naruto himself or Jiraiya- but sadly it not change the fact at all that Naruto was very much at times a pervert…

This particular trait was currently shown as… Naruto grinned as he crouched in the bushes, beside Kiba. Where was Sakura-chan…?

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan, please don't angry with me…" was the whispered but happy chant that Naruto made as he scanned the lake waters.

The lake, where they had gotten their water form yesterday, wasn't exactly those glistening pure beautiful lakes that you would find in storybooks… The lake was slightly muddy, not clean, but nonetheless pretty much clean and… really warm…and… Jackpot! There, there was Sakura-chan in all her naked glory and- WHITE FURRY STUFF!

"What the-" fortunately Naruto wasn't able to finish his sentence otherwise this story would without a doubt, have to be censored.

The enraged ninja was currently squashed against something very hot and furry- something that was also known as Akamaru. Naruto was sorely tempted to yell his head off- but was stopped by the fact that his mouth was full of dog hair. Yelling expletives inside his head, Naruto pushed the huge canine off him, and frantically scurried back to his old view point…

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan," chanted Naruto again as he scanned the area.

Sakura-chan unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the reader's viewpoint, was gone. Damn that stupid dog! Naruto gave what many would consider to be called the 'evil eye' to Akamaru which the dog didn't even see but Naruto didn't care anyway. It was the thought that counted after all. The yellow haired ninja growled angrily, and glanced over at Kiba. The Inuzuka heir seemed to be extremely annoyed- huge rocks and boulders sat on the lake, blocking out full view of the lake and leaving behind zero females in sight.

Shikamaru was hiding in another clump of bushes, far off. The Chunin gave the reason that he believed that Naruto and Kiba would definitely be caught by some monster-like enraged girl by being too loud thus meaning that the Nara should stick away from the two like they were the plague. The Nara also mentioned that he would be taking a nap- and not being an idiotically pervert. Naruto, on the contrary, believed that the ninja simply wanted to alone and not ruin his reputation by peeping on that Ino girl.

A tiny sound was made and Naruto's ears perked up, turning swiftly around. Through the dense foliage of the jungle, the ninja could just make out a black haired ninja (known as Sasuke-kun) disappearing into a bush on the other side of the lake. Naruto smirked- he knew Sasuke-kun wouldn't be able to resist- it was inevitable. Then… there came the matter of where Fuzzy Eyebrows (the strange nickname that still strayed into Naruto's thoughts at times) and Neji were…

Naruto frowned. Actually, he hadn't heard from them in a long while- which was really strange, considering how loud and weird Lee could be a times… Naruto shrugged, not caring what THEY were up to- he was more interested in what Sakura-chan was up to and… Wait! Was that, was that-

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto's eyes were popped wide open as he stared the teen before him.

No wait… It couldn't be Hinata… Hinata was childlike, frail, sweet and innocent, pretty… but definitely not… sexy- at least not until now. Naruto leaned forward and upon getting a better view had a huge nosebleed.

The curves… the feminine features… the skin unblemished by lack of clothing… How had he not seen like THIS before? That really was Hinata-chan? Naruto wiped drool away from his chin and leaned forward again… and again… until-

A hysterical shriek resounded in the air from Hinata as Naruto plunged face first into the lake, crashing into none other then Hyuuga Hinata- a very unclothed naked Hyuuga Hinata that is. Rustles in the bushes indicated that Kiba and Akarmaru were fleeing the scene. Naruto was caught in a few seconds of bliss until Hinata shrieked again and sprinted off and far away. Another nosebleed happened and Naruto suddenly really realized that… Hinata-chan was hot.

Rustles in the bushes indicated that Kiba and Akarmaru were fleeing the scene, and the first thing Naruto saw upon looking up was…

Blonde hair… White Fan… Temari… Gaara's sister… Also known to be quite powerful… and currently looked… Naruto's limited vocabulary settled on… angry - very angry.

He was only too right.

Some of the other ninja on the island recalled seeing a orange shape flying across the sky. They of course took that to be a hallucination from the heat. But Uzamaki Naruto himself didn't seem to mind that he was flying across the air (and going to crash somewhere on the far beach), he was too busy running through images of a naked Hinata-chan in his mind and having nosebleeds at the same time.

Yes. Uzamaki Naruto at times was very much a pervert.

* * *

Phew! So sorry this was late! And yeah… Tenten's character is really hard to write! I really do hope the manga/anime gives her more character/character development soon… 

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed-I'd actually put the names of the people who reviewed here but… since this is so late, I can't be bothered… The reason for this being so late? Umm…. Oh yeah! Writer's block!

So if you have any ideas for this little scrap of writing, please let me know! I'm basically going to rely on any ideas in reviews to write the next chapter. Thanks for reading and whatever!

Whenever I next write…

-StarDragon X


	7. Chapter 7: Escape?

Hello everyone! I'm really sorry about the kinda late update, but then I've been on vacation for a few days too and had to do work then finally the internet went down...>. Meh. Sorry about all this lateness. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Anyway, getting onz I hope I didn't confuse TOO much people with the chapter mix up last time!

Enjoyz.

* * *

Shipwreck Chapter 7: 

Escape?

* * *

Shino sighed, his facial expressions mainly hidden by his pair of sunglasses. He was ravenously hungry… thanks to that… person. A glance was directed at Konoha's Green Beast. Yes-that particular person. While a certain number of males were being rashly perverted he had decided to get something to eat. Unfortunately, anything that looked or that was edible in the close surrounding area sadly had been harvested by their Food Retrieval Team- yesterday. Unfortunately, anything and everything harvested that was deemed edible had been demolished by a fire created by- another glance was directed at Konoha's Green Beast. 

Now the trees were bare of any fruit and the boars now seemed to know that seeing a human meant instant death and thus stayed clear away and out of sight. Even his insects couldn't find anything- anything for him, that is. He briefly put his hand into one of his many coat pockets, checking for something. The rough surface of a cloth bag brushed against his fingertips. Yes, it was still there- the survival kit. Yes, Kankuro had made it a habit to glare at him ever half-minute. Yes, he desperately wanted to eat something from that survival kit bag.

But, if he did do that he'd end up in a situation similar to the one that Kankuro faced last night. Aburame Shino, of course, was smarter. What were they meant to be doing…? Oh yes. Shino winced upon remembrance.

They were 'supposed' to be gathering ideas on how to get more food, how to murder Rock Lee, where they actually were, and how the hell would they actually get of this stupid ramen-free round sandy thing with lots of funny trees on it!

One may of course guess who stated the last subject- Uzamaki Naruto. Shino smirked. The blonde looked, to say the least, very bruised, very hurt, and very sulky. It served him right. The only medic-nin in the group- Sakura, wouldn't for some 'strange' reason attend to Naruto-kun's desperate injuries. The pink haired teen was more inclined to give the teen a bash on the head, followed by a wallop on the head by Ino, then another punch on the head by Tenten, followed by an extremely hard whack by Temari, and ended with Hinata blushing furiously.

The same type of thing seemed to also happened to Kiba, Shikamaru and Lee. Interestingly enough, the Hyuuga and Uchiha were left well alone. Shino shook his head, assuming they had got caught on their escapade to the lake.

"I don't think we can get anymore food, that's currently in a day's reach around here," Kiba glared at Lee before continuing, "We pretty much got every single thing to be found. But now…"

Kiba produced another glare at Rock Lee. Lee himself seemed unperturbed by everybody's current feelings towards him and shrugged.

"I can get the food- hey, I can join you guys!" he grinned at Tenten, Kiba, and Chouji who looked mortified at this new idea.

Shino, noted with some amusement, that Temari and Sasuke, on the other hand had somewhere exchanged relieved looks with Sakura glaring at both, probably paranoid about a 'romantic relationship'.

"Rock Lee will-" Gaara paused for some kind of weird dramatic effect.

Everyone hopped closer towards the kage, mentally urging him to get on with it. The Aburame blinked in surprise- the Kazekage actually KNEW how to pause like that? Well, well.

"Rock Lee will STAY on his current team but- he will also spend extra time gathering the nessary food and water to make up for his… mistake."

Naruto waved his hand in the air, looking slightly like a young schoolboy, "Hey, hey, let's move on! Wasn't there something about you know… Fuzzy Eyebrows?"

Gaara shook his head promptly, "I don't think that's a… sensible subject."

Shino didn't think it was either, but it would definitely be an amusing subject… Yes, he wanted to also kill Rock Lee for his painful hunger but it'd of course be entertaining seeing all these other people rant and rave senselessly.

"Hell yeah it is sensible!" shouted Sakura, "Do you know how hungry we are? First we get no food at all then we find our privacy intruded by a bunch of perverts! One including him!"

An accusing finger was pointed at Lee.

"But Sakura-chan…"

'Sakura-chan' whacked him on the head forcefully. Various females glared at various males who promptly tried to mix in with the shadows.

"As amusing as it is to watch you little lovebirds run around like idiots… I'd rather we not waste time- can we move on?" Kankuro's voice was slow and lazy, with traces of amusement in it.

The pairs glared at Kankuro, indignant at being called 'lovebirds' and 'idiots'.

"Though I don't agree with your wording…" Kiba had slit eyes at the puppeteer, "I agree."

"The next one was to discuss was where we are!" pointed out Shikamaru, as he jumped into a tree for safety.

"Island." replied Ino bluntly and vented out her rage on Shikamaru via a rant.

"We're not going to be found soon, you know." The quiet voice of Hyuuga Hinata broke through the voices of the others- the only female who hadn't punched, kicked, or vented out any anger on anyone.

Shino nodded. It was good that she was actually speaking up. She had come a long way from where she couldn't put a whole two sentences together without stuttering... But, the bug-user frowned, what she said…

"What do you mean? What do you mean?" the words were spoken fast and hurried, from Naruto.

"Well… Before the… storm, I was looking at some of the ship's maps along with the captain. He told me that it would be still a little more to go, as we had three more days of journey ahead of us."

Of course. The Aburame closed his eyes briefly in understanding. This was the second day of the shipwreck. This meant it would take one more day before the ship was scheduled to arrive at their destination, but the people at port would allow a day or two lateness before getting worried about the ship. After all, storms and harsh weather conditions were common in this area, leaving ships and boats normally late. Thus, it would take quite a while for anyone to get worried about them, let alone paranoid. Naruto, being Naruto did not catch on at all on all of this.

"Wha-?"

Fortunately everyone else did.

"Shut up, idiot!" hushed Sakura, "Hinata-san's going to speak again!"

"The good news is, from the maps, we're probably on an island close to the main land so we're able to travel across the sea by ourselves.," Hinata stopped, "The bad news is that there are hundreds of these islands, and our ship is at the bottom of the sea-out of sight. We shouldn't expect any one to come and get us. We have to escape on our own."

Silence met this new information and Hinata, red, scurried into the shadows thinking that she had said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Shino frowned, as many others did, but this wasn't because of Hinata. He frowned, because, the situation had somehow become worse. He glanced at the slight bulge in the bag beside her. Hopefully she remembered to do that sometime later today. A glance was directed Naruto- that guy better like it...

But, before people started running around like idiots and yelling, 'We're doomed', and Hinata losing her self-confidence again, Shino decided to change the subject.

"How about if we just find out how to get to the mainland at the moment?" he asked, "Instead of worrying and panicking unnecessari-"

"RIGHT! LET US USE OUR BLAZING FIRES OF YOUTH! YOSH!" and off ran Rock Lee towrads the beach.

--------------------------------------------------

Gaara had no idea how and why all this was happening before him. He distinctly remembered that they all did enter that discussion based on how simply to get off the island. Then… he seemed to have entered a different world. After the more sensible ideas like building a raft or some form of a boat were put up and tried… then did the really… strange ideas pop up. These ideas were normally accompanied with,

"Well, have YOU got a better idea?"

After many other dubious people questioned and criticized the plan. The next normal event that would happen was that everyone would actually run after the person who suggested that idea (and was now proceeding to carry it out), some still criticizing, some deciding to just go the heck along with it.

What had they tried…? Oh yes- a life raft(until it sank because of inaccurate building), another life raft(that broke when four people stepped on it), a third life raft(that didn't break or sink until ten people got on it), a fourth life raft(that was perfect until they found that it was devoid of the essentials-a sail, some type of rudder, and oars), an actual boat(but they ended up with something that looked like a spaceship), yes… the list somehow went on and on and on.

He was the Kazekage. And he was on a C rank mission. This was absolutely ludicrous. This is whole… thing was absolutely ludicrous. True, true, his whole village council was all for it as was the Hokage in Hidden Leaf Village. The reason? Gaara glared at no one in particular. Money. Yes- lots and lots of money. The Hokage, with her infamous numerable amount of debts had been bound to accept the deal- which also included him, his sister and his brother. Their client had came to them with a list- yes, a list with fifteen names on it, the exact names of the ninja who would be assigned to this mission. Amazing, but sadly enough this was the reason why he was thus here now with:

One carrier of the Nine Tales Demon Fox, one probable unstable white eyed Jonin, two sane Jonin, one ex-missing nin, two ex-fangirls, one weapons specialist with giant bombs, one apparent genius, one white dog, one dog master, one taijutsu lunatic, one anti-social bug user, one 'eternally-hungry' Chunin and one Kazekage.

Yeah. He had quite a mix… didn't he? Why any client would want all these exact people, together, in one mission was enough of a mystery which he'd probably never find out. After all, reasons wanted could disappear instantly when there was money… and lots of it around.

Then, there was the good chance that their client was dead- drowned, sleeping forever at the bottom of the sea. No money. But, then, the important thing now was to just survive and he currently wasn't concerned if their mission succeeded… or didn't succeed.

The Kazekage, quickly took a step to one side as a huge hunk of wood came flying right at him. He spared a glance at what the others were doing. They were trying to chop down trees for a raft. Trying was the keyword. Rock Lee had just made a tree explode into a mass of flying debris via one kick. A vein throbbed on Gaara' forehead.

This was it. He had enough. He had learned patience from being acquainted with the lunatics in this group for a few years. He had learned more patience from his council in Suna. But sadly, very sadly, that patience had just expired. He was absolutely sick and tired and waiting for these people to actual do something worthwhile. He had given them a chance, so now as he was nearly at and on the verge of insanity he thus had to resolve it all by simply doing things sensibly- Not that he wouldn't mind doing it like that, that is.

"We are going to stop this pathetic idea of building a life raft."

Heads turned, silence ensued.

"But wasn't it YOUR idea?" pointed out Naruto, trying to look intelligent.

This of course failed and Gaara felt like screaming, 'no, it was the guy in green spandex's idea.' But this was very un-Gaara and although he had some kind of affinity for the blonde… this was really cutting it.

"Idiot!" whispered Chouji hurriedly to the Kyuubi container, "I know you went away for two years but-"

The Akimichi heir gestured with his head towards Gaara.

"Don't you know that temperament, that look on his face?" continued Kiba, also in a whisper, "He's like Hokage-sama when she's found out the sake shipment has been delayed."

"Oh." This time, with the reference to Tsundae, Naruto understand perfectly and startled to babble, "I'm, ah extremely sorry, ah Gaara-sama, oh I mean, Hokage-sama, nononono, I mean, ah, Kazekage-sama, yeah that's it!"

"So what are we going to do now…?" continued Sakura.

Gaara himself was feeling like using on of his more…deadly jutsus on all of them- the one where sand enveloped you on all sides and then…suddenly crushed the life out of you. Yes, that one-

"Thanks a lot, Forehead-Girl…." Muttered Yamanaka Ino sarcastically.

For Gaara, unaware of he was actually doing as he was thinking, had actually unconsciously started to command his sand to wrap itself around each shinobi there. The ninja all froze- had Gaara finally… cracked and went back to his old unstable state?

Temari remembered the old days, "Ah Gaara…?"

But unfortunately Gaara still deep in his thoughts, didn't notice the question, and didn't notice that his eyes had developed a somewhat freakish, psychopathic look to them- he didn't notice anything. Gaara was still reaching into his inner depths, trying to find where he stored that emergency bit of patience for times like this…

The sand by now was up to their knees. Gaara kept on searching mentally, unaware of his surroundings- unaware of everything. Lee seemed to be on the verge of frightened frenzy, having flashbacks of the last time he had been in a situation like this- the situation which nearly killed him.

Tenten, out of the blue, tried 'counseling', in a somewhat soothing voice, "Ah… Gaara, you'd wouldn't want to hurt us would you? Don't you want to-"

The sand around the Chuunin suddenly rose up to the teen's waist instead of slowly crawling up her thighs. Tenten froze and kept silent.

"DAMN IT GAARA!" shouted Naruto and clumsily flung a free kunai at the kage, "SNAP OUT OF IT!"

Temari's eyes widened but thankfully, Kankuro saw it, caught it and blocked it with his arm. The kunai simply bounced off the Jonin's arm, the blunt side tapping his shoulder blade.

Gaara pushed away a particularly painful memory form his childhood and continued his search, diving further into his mind.

"Moron!" seethed Kankuro, "Don't you know- that makes him worse!"

Sasuke tried a fire jutsu as a test, half wondering if the sand for once wouldn't resist the fire. It of course did. Neji tried using some sort of chakra attack and Shino started to send his insects toward Gaara- only to be stopped by an anxious Temari. You had be extremely careful when Gaara was like that. Even if the Sand demon was out of the kage… there were times when-

Gaara's mental mind grasped the fleeting emotion, and finally returned to the real world, unaware of what he had been just doing. His calm demeanor returned, the freaky eye look disappeared, and the sand immediately retracted before Gaara knew what it had been up to.

"We are going to try something else- something more," Gaara stopped, as he saw the many figures staring at him, frozen in place, like statues.

A vein nearly pulsed on his forehead but the kage shook it away. It was at times like this that he really wondered if all these people were REALLY actually what the world considered them to be: geniuses, powerful, intelligent… Yes, at times like this, he really had his doubts…. They were really all idiots weren't they…?

Naruto sighed and suddenly relaxed, "Whew… I thought I was going to be crushed to death… I never knew sand could be so scary either…"

AND they were insane and delusional- wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

--------------------------------------------------

"I'm giving you all the option via majority rules on either a three man team or pairs, chosen by yourselves."

Hyuuga Neji looked up. They were finally going to do something worthwhile. Great.

Temari seemed to respond instantaneously after glancing at Lee, "Pairs. Sasuke?"

Sasuke nodded almost immediately, "Yeah. We'll do scouting."

Neji nodded in understanding. Lee was all in all, not so much of an idiot as he was in Genin days, but there were limits.

Neji smirked as he saw Haruno Sakura half glare at the pair- she probably had some very wrong idea of why the two were together. Knowing that there was going to chaos in the next few seconds for partners, the Hyuuga looked quickly around, trying to find Tenten. Where was she…?

Too late.

"Tenten, do you wanna scout with me?" Inuzuka Kiba flashed a lopsided grin at Tenten from where he stood beside his dog.

Neji inwardly shook his heard, allowing himself another smirk. The Chuunin would of course, have to be disappointed and go find someone else. It was almost preposterous that Tenten would go with anyone ELSE anyway-

"Yeah, sure!"

WHAT THE HELL? Fortunately, Neji didn't scream this out loud, otherwise the others might have been scarred for life. The Byakugen user didn't have time to call out a retort or anything of that manner as the area soon collapsed into noise, sound, and movement as people started to talk to each other.

His logical side tried to convince him that Tenten was just being polite; after all, the two had been together quite a lot on the island so far, due to the fact that they were both on the Food Retrieval Team. It would only be natural for them to go together… and besides, the dog boy otherwise would be stuck with no one…right? What the hell... He didn't even sound convincing to himself…

Neji suddenly realized that his options for a partner were disappearing as he heard,

"Shikamaru, you're going with me right?"

"Guess so…"

Turning around, he saw a flash of green cloth and winced- he definitely didn't want to get stuck with HIM for a whole three hours… Pink entered his eyesight, as he caught hold of Sakura who seemed to be looking for a partner still, somewhat reluctant in her actions.

He might as well go with her… since Tenten- red nearly blinded the Hyuuga's vision on this thought- was going with that…idiot. What was she thinking?

"Hey Sakura-chan!"

Neji saw his team mate greet Sakura and immediately knew what was happening. He was going to go ask Sakura… and knowing the kunoichi she'd probably accept- she was quite amiable with him these days, seeing him as some sort of brother. And on impulse, he said smoothly and quickly,

"Sakura, do you have anyone to go with?"

"Ah," the pink haired teen glanced at Lee who had been stopped by Gaara, "I guess… not. I'll go with you!"

She smiled at him nervously and he nodded curtly. Neji glared at Kiba from the corner of his eyes. Where he and Sakura some kind of leftover trash...? Impossible... And yet-

Neji glanced at Sakura looking at Sasuke and Temari talking, while he himself tried not to barge in on Tenten and that other person beside her. What was up with Tenten today...? This was wrong. After all, whenever did she start being so... friendly with that Inuzuka? From his memory, he never really remembered he talking to any other male with the exception of him. After all, Tenten was HIS teammate, HIS sparring partner- but then, he didn't really care, of course. She could go be a slut if she wanted to.

Neji looked around for Tenten, not that he actually really cared, really… His fingers somehow clenched into a fist upon seeing the two and his eyes somehow narrowed upon seeing the Inuzuka casually touch her hand- yes, he really didn't care.

Neji glanced around seeing who was with who, determined to get the image of Tenten with Kiba out of his mind. Gaara stood in the centre obviously waiting for people to get organized, his facial expression calm- for the moment at least.

Naruto was talking very animatedly to a slightly red Hinata while Shino and Kankuro near each other- just not… socializing with each other. Temari and Sasuke interchanged a few sentences to each other and Lee was ecstatically pumping his fist in the air while Chouji beside him tried half heartedly to calm the shinobi down. Shikamaru leaned against a tree, some form of red tinting his cheeks- Ino was probably lecturing him for being pervert… It was a good thing that the same thing hadn't happened to him with Tenten- and speaking of her…

Neji tried, he really did, but his self-control suddenly broke and he looked again at the kunoichi. She didn't even seem to notice he was there- oh maybe she did. Neji fought to keep his facial features calm and placid as the weapons specialist turned to smile at him… then immediately talk to that infuriating mud haired teen beside her.

The Hyuuga broke his gaze and focused on a tree near him. One…Two…Three… Four… Five- He felt his head turning before stopping it just in time… Damn it! He wasn't jealous- of course…not?

--------------------------------------------------

Running. Akimichi Chouji hadn't done so much of it… in a very long while. His legs felt like huge iron weights, pulling him down into the ground. Simply put, Chouji wasn't built to do this sort of life threatening exercise. He was built to eat… and eat… then eat some more. But as fate would have it, here he was, running- and running and running.

"Hey, Gaara, let's take a short break, huh?"

The Kagekage paused on a tree branch and turned his head back. Chouji tried his best smile.

"Might as well."

Oh wow- it worked. The Akimichi sighed in relief, and choosing a thick branch that would support his weight, slid down against a tree trunk. Chouji glanced around from where he was, taking in the dense jungle. He and Gaara had already covered at least half of the area they were meant to cover and explore- that is, the beach area closest to the shipwreck to the camp.

And it was… Chouji tilted his head upwards, checking the position of the sun in the sky- just starting to reach late afternoon. They would finish in another two hours. Good. He wanted to go to that lake and take a bath of something. He was had buckets of sweat- a substance which seemed to attract those infuriating bugs that kept landing on him… He envied Gaara- any insect that came into a questionable radius of the kage was disintegrated by sand. Yeah-

A small feathered blue object suddenly smashed into his face and after catching whatever that thing was, Chouji spat out feathers from his mouth. He had actually been tempted to just eat them- he was that hungry, but… the sensible part of him still seemed revolted at it. Give or take a few hours more, and he'd probably be living on feathers happily…

But this was not the time to actually think about feathers and lovely things like that. Instead, this was the time to yell,

"What the hell!"

And clutch the offending blue thing in his hands. Thus Chouji did exactly that. Gaara turned to look back and blinked. The bird squawked- a very high pitched squawk, and kept squawking. Chouji let go immediately, as the sound painfully hit his ear drums and Gaara closed his eye momentarily.

The bird clumsily started to fly away, still dizzy from its collision. Chouji, recovering from the attack, suddenly realized what was flying away from him- food! The thing he needed. He didn't care if the bird was poisonous or something like that- he needed food NOW.

Enlarging his arm immediately via a jutsu, Chouji struck his hand out and caught the bird. Soon, the poor creature was making weak squawk sand struggles, terrified in his hands. Drool dangled from his lip. Food… On impulse, the Akimichi started to bring the bird to his mouth until he realized…

That it was still squawking its head off and was alive and kicking. He paused for thought. Then, with one well placed blow, the bird received swirls in its eyes and was off to dreamland.

"I'll just be a few minutes," said Chouji after seeing Gaara's gaze on him, "I'm starving! We can split it anyway…"

Jumping down to the ground, the shinobi started to hunt around for sticks, one hand clutched to his precious treasure. Once various thin sticks had been assembled he started to rub two sticks together, trying to get a fire going. Cooked Unidentifiable Bird never sounded more delicious at the current moment. Chouji rubbed faster and more vigorously.

The result was a tiny flame which slowly, hungrily began to eat and grow. Once satisfied with his fire, Chouji dumped the parrot onto the still blazing fire, not caring about a spit or how he cooked it now- he just wanted it cooked, damn it.

Gaara landed beside him with a soft thud. Chouji grinned at him, feeling some form of ecstasy with the thought of eating.Saliva formed speedily on his mouth. He really wanted to eat it now. NOW. But at least, heshould have it cooked and hygienic… A drop of water suddenly landed on Chouji's nose.

"Eh?" the shinobi looked up surprised.

Was that dew? OR was that-

Suddenly, a huge downpour of rain descended on the two companions, pelting down on their backs and distinguishing their meager fire in almost an instant. The rain also revived the bird, and it immediately took off, it's wings and feathers singed. The sudden change of weather was shockingly cold and Chouji sat there numbly for a few seconds before he realized what had happened.

"Damn. Stupid Bird."

* * *

Done. Hopeflully, that was alright, and wow- we haven't heard from Shino in a while have we? 

If you're waiting for NaruHina to actually get a move on its way, you'll be glad to know that yes… a little fluffy moment is in the next chapter. Well, at least I think it will be fluffy.

Again, I'm sorry for the uber lateness!

Till Whenever,

-StarDragon X


	8. Chapter 8: Rainy Days

Sorry if it's a little shorter then normal! I practically typed this all up in one to one and a half days to get this to you relatively on time. I think the whole chapter's about 3000 words rather then 4000 words… But you hopefully won't notice!

And yeah, sorry about the lateness once again. -- I had this almost ready a fe days ago then I delayed because I thought I had plently of time. Bah- I'm really sorry! I promise to get it done exactly on time next week!

**The Ox:** Go island hopping? THANK YOU SO MUCH for addressing that! I've tried to go come up with a mini explanation somewhere in this chapter! That actually is quite a logical idea… THANK YOU!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! I

ALL OF YOU AND THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I know I'm so unorganized and late and all that- but this time WILL be better as I'm getting faster at writing and typing noticeably AND also that I'm actually trying to organize myself with school, work, and writing! Whee. A whole paragraph that is probably a total waste of your and my time since you just want the story, eh?

Oh wait. Dsiclaimer. Can't forget that, can we?

**DISCLAIMER: **Umm… Who own's Naruto? Do I REALLY need to tell you? Oh. I do? It's owned by this Japanese person who owns Naruto.

Bah. I'm getting sick of making of disclaimers. I've never actually used the disclaimer "I do not own Naruto/Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto' or something like that… That's lame.

So- as an extra note, BEFORE you go read the story, if you come up with anything different, go tell me in a review and I'll start to use them In upcoming chapters. Yes, I know I'm lazy. -- Let's call it a partnership type of thing. I write the story, you write the disclaimer if you want to. Everyone's happy. No you can go read the chapter.

Oh- no. wait. I'm also going to re edit some of this tomorrow for final grammar and whatnot. So yeah. Now you can read the story.

(DID YOU KNOW THAT THIS IS THE LONGEST AUTHOR NOTE I'VE DONE IN A WHILE?)

Oh sorry bout that.

* * *

Naruto Shipwreck Chapter 8:

Rainy Days

* * *

Move to the left. Move to the right. Move forward. Move to the right, kick. Move backward. Move to the left. Move to the left. Kick.

The raindrop disintegrated into tiny particles and Rock Lee retracted his foot before the rain could catch it in its wet touch. Hopping to his left, the Chuunin grinned as he moved out of the way from a particularly large raindrop.

He was dry- Absolutely dry! Even though the rain was pouring down, he was dry. Gai sensei would be proud! All it took was a little more speed and concentration. This island experience was proving very… beneficial. Even if the others were being pessimists, he was dry and green and happy.

He scooped up another fruit from the ground and deposited it onto the sack on his back- while still keeping out of rain's way. Normal people would've have fainted form amazement, as Rock Lee was moving fast- Faster then the rain, and just under the blink of an eye.

Glancing up, the Chuunin caught sight of several fruit hanging from a tall tree. How many were there…? One, two… four, five…eight, nine, ten! Yosh! He would knock off all the fruits in the tree, catch them and ignite his fire of youth! YOSH! Gai-sensei really then would be proud!

Emboldened by these thoughts, the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha ran up the tree high speed. With a single midair spinning kick, the fifteen year old watched as the small group of fruit started to descend towards the ground. Suddenly realizing that he was going to get wet soon, Lee frantically jumped back into the shelter of the tree and grappled at the trunk with his hands.

Wait a minute- The fruits! And, however ludicrous it may have sounded, Rock Lee literally ran back down the tree, his shoes stampeding on its trunk, gabbing yellow skinned fruits here and there.

One, two… three, four, and five! The sixth fruit landed in his sack and then came the seventh… Eight… Nine… Last One! Lee pumping his arms dived after the fruit, forgetting about not getting wet and everything else.

In later moments, Rock Lee might have ranted about how he fully ignited his flames of youth by this particular act. Unfortunately Rock Lee didn't fully ignite his flames of youth- his slipped on a wet part of the tree trunk and crashed landed into the ground, his heard knocking hard on the trunk.

The yellow fruit rolled away and out of site and to his dismay, the rest of the fruit in his sack had also started to tumble out. And to top it off, Rock Lee started to notice something… Something tragic, something terrible, something extremely wrong-

He was wet. As childish as it seemed, the beloved Lee-san to many- sniffled. He was drenched. He sniffled again. Fortunately Tenten or Neji weren't here or they'd surely beat the lovely youthful flames all the way out of him. Upon sniffling the third and final time, the Chuunin noticed something… else.

It wasn't exactly tragic, or terrible, or extremely wrong- it was just… different. Oh wait. He was lying upside down. Ooops. In a single movement the taijutsu specialist righted himself up again. So… what was he thinking about again?

A few seconds passed and the only sound was of the rain pounding down on him. Hmmm… Oh. OH RIGHT! He pointed his youthful finger in one direction. No… no… no… He didn't even know where that was to…

Another few seconds passed. More rain pounded down on Rock Lee.

Oh. Hmm… He rubbed his youthful bowl cut head in an effort to stop a headache that had been caused by his fall. Oh yeah!

He took a few youthful confident steps in one direction- before he tripped. Over a large yellow fruit. This really was irritating. It was a pity Gai-sensei wasn't here. He'd know what to do. Lee then finally noticed something odd.

He was lying upside down. Strangely, he had this huge wave of déjà vu coming to him- added to the fact that he had the headache… So. Rock Lee looked with his youthful eyes in each direction, keeping in his very youthful position.

What had happened the last time he was like this…? Oh. Right.

Right.

Very right.

Youthful right.

Blazing fires of youth right.

Sakura-chan right of rightness. Right of-

Lee blinked. Enough of that. He had to be serious. Oh. Oh yeah. Oh, oh- no. He wasn't going to start on something like that again. He had to concentrate and be intelligent… like Gai-sensei.

By now, Lee was totally wet to the skin but he didn't notice. But, after a few moments more… it got through to his brain what he was trying to remember. There was a path or something… over there… and it looked man made…! Yeah! Yeah that's right!

"YOSH!" shouted Lee- youthfully.

And whether this all came from his headache or just from him himself, Rock Lee dashed further into the jungle, without a further care about the fruit- only that he was finally feeling wonderfully youthfully youthful.

He flashed the 'Good Guy Smile' to no one in particular as he ran. Unfortunately he didn't see or hear a particular rare type of jungle squirrel drop off a tree branch unconscious from the…youthfulness and… shininess of it. Ah well.

--------------------------------------------------

Temari sighed and jumped for cover under a tree. But even as the Jonin flattened herself again the trunk, the plant could do little to stop the furious downpour of rain- Terrible, hateful rain. In a nearby tree, she could see the Uchiha mimic her movements. The ground had already started to turn into a swamp of mud and weeds and everything else was as slippery as hell.

Jungle weather really was unpredictable, wasn't it? One minute it was like being cooked alive in a blazing inferno, the next minute you were being drowned in an ocean of rain- Wonderful. Back home, in Suna there were only three types of weather: Hot, Hotter, and Hell-Fury Hot.

"Temari, we need to keep moving."

She almost flinched when she saw him- standing, centimeters away from her, his head titled up to her. Normally at times like that this, romantic music would be played and there'd be some sort of fluffy kiss. Unfortunately, this was Uchiha Sasuke standing in front of her, not some kind of handsome prince- not to take away from the fact that he was good looking and handsome.

Heck, his stance would have been almost suggestive if not for the fact, that he had to stand like this beside her, and tilt his head slightly up- she was of course taller via the age gap.

"We need to keep moving."

Temari nodded. No wonder Ino and Sakura and fan-girled him for so long… The crimson red sharingan eyes, the wet hair that seemed to enhance his appearance- and of course he was the Uchiha Sasuke. Fortunately she wasn't interested in him. Even if Sakura thought she was- how amusing. Temari smiled upon remembering how the Haruno had kept looking at her and Sasuke.

Temari scanned the surroundings, analyzing the situation quickly. They had traveled for at least two hours from their main camp. Due to the weather conditions, they'd definitely have to spend the night alone together. Wouldn't that give Sakura-san ideas? Temari smirked.

"We're probably going to have to spend the night out here… We need to look out for possible shelters."

"I've already thought of that. We'll travel for another hour before getting food- then we'll stop."

"Shouldn't we look for a shelter first?"

"No. Trust me."

"Have you found a shelter yet?"

Temari still didn't really trust the Uchiha- even if he was hot. There was just something about how he followed Orochimaru around for two years, finally brought back by Naruto and Sakura that irked her. Even if Naruto and Sakura had somewhat childish faith and trust in him- she didn't. After all, who knew if he was still blood thirsty and power mad?

"No. Trust Me-" Sasuke broke of his sentence with a glance at a tree near them.

Temari followed his gaze- leaves rustled on the branches before figure jumped out. Hand on fan; the kunoichi peered through the rain that blurred her vision. Her hand relaxed on her fan- it was Sakura. Another figure jumped out the tree, this time more smoothly. Temari peered again.

"The Hyuuga and Sakura."

Ah. Temari grinned and waved at the two. Seeing her and Sasuke together at such close proximity… yeah, that really would give Sakura-san ideas.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here?"

Neji and Sakura jumped for shelter into a tree right next to them. They too, flattened themselves against the trunk in an effort to stop the rain from reaching them. Out of the corner of her eye, Temari saw the Uchiha's eyes narrow slightly- of course. He was having the same type of suggestive ideas about Sakura and Hyuuga Neji as Sakura had with her and him. How very amusing.

"We said we'd be scouting in the area next to you guys, right Neji?"

"_Liar."_

"I suppose… But aren't you guys cutting it?" Temari raised an eyebrow, "If you go on like that, you'll reach the area where Kiba and Tenten are exploring…"

At this statement Neji's eyes seemed to gaze in a distant direction quickly, "Sakura stay here. I need to check something out."

Temari watched, again, amused as the Hyuuga bounded off in the direction of where Kiba and Tenten were meant to be. What a complicated tangle of romance. You could almost call it a soap opera.

"Sakura- you're getting drenched. Find another tree." Sasuke's words seemed to be irritated- but then, they only seemed to be and were probably hiding his true intentions.

Sakura complied and as she did, Sasuke added almost accusingly, "So… what have you and the Hyuuga been doing."

"Exploring." But Sakura didn't sound rock hard sure, "And you two?"

Temari was about to answer, but was cut off by Sasuke, "Exploring- as we were MEANT to do. I wonder if you and the Hyuuga have followed that at all."

"Of course we did!" retorted Sakura indignantly, "After Neji comes back, continue."

"And do what?" Sasuke countered, almost fiercely.

"…"

Temari sighed and watched silently as the two Konoha-nin traded back remarks close enough to be insults with each other. From what she knew, Sakura had made a firm decision when Sasuke returned to forget about her puppy love from when they were genin. Unfortunately, Sasuke didn't know this- and it probably wouldn't be be a complete lie if she said the Uchiha was developing some sort of romantic attachment to the Haruno and the Haruno herself was trying to decide if she was delusional or if it was for real. She had kept to delusional so far.

"Are you planning to have sex with him then?"

Temari blinked incredulously and twirled around to see the two half glaring at each other. What the hell had just happened?

"No! No way! Are you out of your mind?"

"_Yes. Are you two insane? Yes."_

"Maybe. But then, I'm not a slut."

"_Oooh. Vicious."_

Sakura looked appalled and half confused- apparently not knowing why he was treating her like this.

Temari rubbed her forehead with one hand, not really wanting to get caught in the middle of this. But she didn't want to stand there all day either…They probably would've have gone on like this forever, growing more and more nastier so Temari put her foot down- literally and metaphorically.

"I've got no idea what's happening here so will you two please stop being so childish?"

Both glanced at her- Sasuke with a glare in his eyes.

"Mind your own business."

"Sasuke!"

"Stay out of this Sakura!"

"But-"

"…"

"… …"

That last statement came from Neji.

--------------------------------------------------

"So… we're going to stay here… all afternoon and watch the rain?" asked Yamanaka Ino gloomily.

"Yeah. Pretty much." Responded Nara Shikamaru from where he sat again the wood wall of the hut.

"How fun." Ino muttered sarcastically, "Trust you to choose the job that lets us do nothing."

They had been there for almost three hours now… When were the others coming back! But then, the question was if they were even coming back that day. Shikamaru had pointed out that the weather would prevent most from getting back. Other then Lee, of course. He was… different

"Hey, at least the rain's letting up…"

The blonde glanced at the cloud filled sky dubiously, "You think? It looks the same…"

"The clouds are whitish grey- they used to be black."

"How observant."

Ino yawned. This boring- extremely boring. She and Shikamaru were on the task of 'guarding' the hut from 'predators'. Yeah. The only thing that would attack them was this stupid rain pelting down at them. Fortunately, the hut was well built (thanks to her) and had so far repelled the rain.

"I wonder how the others are going…" Ino stretched her arms from where she sat at the doorway of their lodge.

"Fine…" Shikamaru waved his hand, "Chouji's probably eating, Gaara watching Chouji, Lee being enthusiastic… and Tenten, Kiba, Neji, Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata, Shino, and Kankuro will of course be scouting somewhere getting saturated."

"Yeah, I suppose- hey Shikamaru, what do you think of Temari-san…?" said Ino.

"Ahhh…" dropped off into the steady sound of raindrops.

Several seconds passed. Ino blinked, annoyed, and glanced at the Chuunin.

"Answer me, will you?"

"Bossy as ever Ino… Temari- I don't know… she's quite a nice person." Replied Shikamaru hurriedly, both eyes closed, as if he were trying to get to sleep.

"How much do you like her?" Ino pressed on.

One eye of the Nara opened cautiously, "And you would want to know that because…?"

"Because I want to know!" said Ino forcefully, emphasizing the word 'I'.

Actually Ino did have a suspicion in the inner of inner depths of her inner mind of exactly why she wanted to know this fact. Because, in the inner of inner depths of Yamanaka Ino's inner mind, Yamanaka Ino was afraid that a relationship between a certain Nara and certain Sand Nin would extend to more than 'just friends'. But of course, just normal Ino with her inner of inners did not think of this.

"Shikamaru closed his one open eye, "What does it matter to you, Ino? You've just got over the Sasuke fan girl craze haven't you? Have you realized finally how handsome and charming I am?"

Shikamaru glanced at her questioningly. Ino shrugged.

"Idiot- You're too skinny to be good looking. But then I suppose your attractiveness has increased over the past few years. So." Ino poked Shikamaru, "How much do you like Temari, eh?"

"I don't know…I guess I like her quite a lot… She's a good person- Temari."

A sudden low nearly inaudible unidentifiable sound broke through the drum of raindrops

"Hey… did you just hear something…?" Ino practically leapt to her feet, eager for some action, and also to get out of the uncomfortable atmosphere in the room.

"Did you forget the rain Ino? Just leave it. You'll be drenched if you go outside." But even Shikamaru sounded relieved.

"Gah- I don't care. Anything's better than this!"

Ino practically raced out the door, kunai in hand. Maybe it was a boar? Lee hadn't come back with the food yet and she was starving. The Yamanaka glanced around, on her the tips of her toes, ready for battle.

Damn it- Shikamaru wasn't… in love with Temari-san was he… or something like that. Ino pushed the thoughts away. Shikamaru was Shikamaru- he was so lazy, he'd only fall in love if a woman waited on him hand and foot. And she doubted Temari would ever do that for anybody except Gaara. But even so, a painful lump in her throat was felt clearly.

The sound came again, letting Ino forget her thoughts.

There it was again… That peculiar sound… What was that noise…? And why did it sound so familiar… A louder noise came, followed by a slithering movement from behind her. Ino spun around to meet the creature.

"Shit."

It was a snake. Yes, she had found a snake.

And a very large snake it was, looking fearsome and extraordinarily green- damn.

And didn't she hear that most jungle snakes were poisonous…?

Yamanaka Ino… hated snakes.

And here she was in front of the largest scariest one she'd probably ever see.

What a coincidence.

--------------------------------------------------

"Naruto-kun, would you like to stop for the day?" Hinata tapped the shoulder of the orange clad shinobi in front of her, "The rain- I don't think it'll stop soon- we should find shelter before it gets too dark."

Hinata glanced behind her, where the dim silhouette of a setting sun peeked through the harsh onslaught of rain. Naruto glanced back at her.

"Eh? It's already evening, Hinata-chan? I thought we could keep going for another few hours…"

Hinata winced, "Ah Naruto- the sun… It's going to be nightfall soon."

One hand pointed at the brilliant orange half circle shape.

Naruto squinted, one hand over his eyes, "That was the sun?"

"…" Hinata touched her forehead with one hand with a sigh, "Yes Naruto-kun, that was the sun…"

The Hyuuga squeezed water from her hair- she and Naruto had been exploring the beaches on the island- where there had been no trees, no shelter, no nothing. So they had been saturated from head to toe in cold water. But Hinata didn't really mind. After all, it WAS three hours with Naruto-kun… how bad could things get? Even if Naruto didn't seem to really notice the rain at all…

The Chuunin with much surprise, felt her hand being grabbed suddenly, and before she knew half of what was happening, the Hyuuga was literally being dragged across the beach, with Naruto yelling, "Faster Hinata! Run! Out of the rain!"

Oh- so he had noticed at last. Hinata now didn't even notice the rain, but just the fact of his hand against hers. He face flushed red. What did this mean? Did Naruto-

Both shinobi crashed into the sand, Naruto falling on top of Hinata, the blonde yelling, "We made it!"

Several moments passed until both ninja became aware of their exact lying position. Naruto jumped off Hinata, holding his hands up saying, "I'm sorry Hinata-chan! I'm so sorry!"

Hinata herself was about to faint. Fortunately she stopped herself- it was a training she had herself do ever since she had met Naruto-kun. So far she had progressed from fainting every time he talked to her to fainting nearly every time he touched her. Amazing progress. An awkward silence ensued.

Hinata took this time to glance around, finally taking in her surroundings. It was a small rock cave and at the entrance, rain steadily beat down on the beach, the sea, and everywhere else.

Wait- did that mean; did that mean that she was going to sleep her with Naruto-kun? Hinata blushed again, pushing romantic images out of her thoughts. No-That would be disrespectable and so… shameful.

"Hey Hinata," Naruto no longer embarrassed glance at her, "You about getting away from the island?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun?"

"Why don't we just walk all the way to the closet island? The keep going from island to island till we get to the main land?"

Hinata blinked in consideration, "Um… Well- Naruto, I don't think we'd have enough chakra to that. You'd have to walk on water with your chakra for at least a quarter to half a day to get to the closest island… It's a lot farther then it looks."

Naruto's brow crinkled up as he processed this 'complicated' string of information, "Oh."

Hinata smiled at him before she kneeled down, and placed her bag on the floor. As she reached into her bag, Hinata felt around, making sure nothing had been ruined by the rain. Most things were wet, but they'd live for another day on the island. Suddenly, she felt the smooth surface of plastic at her fingertips and the Chuunin nearly pulled it out in surprise when she remembered what it was.

Shino had given the thing to her- he had one of the survival packs and Hinata knew the Chuunin didn't want to cause another ruckus by revealing it. The Hyuuga glanced at Naruto who had taken off his normal orange and black jacket and had started to squeeze water out of it. She had to avoid look at the muscles.

Anyway, she had to do it now. Who knew when she might get teamed up alone with Naruto again? It had to be now. Half trembling, Hinata walked up to Naruto, the object behind her back. What if he didn't like it? What if- Wait. Of course Naruto would like it… in fact he'd go crazy over it. But-but-

Hinata cast the negative thoughts away and increased her pace, trying to stride confidently. She succeeded, but she nearly tripped over Naruto himself, who had been sitting down. Squeaking an apology, Hinata jumped back as Naruto rubbed his head, his whiskered face looking up at her in confusion.

"Hey Hinata-chan, what ya up-"

On impulse and knowing which other way to do it, Hinata dropped the item into Naruto's lap saying, "Naruto-kun, I know you came back to Konoha a month after your birthday, and-and, well… this is your birthday present."

The two stood their awkwardly for a few moments again, not rally knowing what to do or say, Naruto staring down at his present in pure amazement.

"Thank you…" he managed, "Thank you Hinata."

And which that he enveloped her in a full blown hug, half squeezing the life out of her, and half yelling for joy, somewhat childish. Cute, even. But Hinata took little notice of these observations but of the ones below…

Naruto-kun was hugging her…. HUGGING her! Hinata felt the air going out of her lungs her face becoming red… Naruto-kun really was hugging her… Did he like her? And with that she fell unconscious.

The reader may now want to know what EXACTLY did the heiress of the Hyuuga clan give to Naruto that would make him so… joyful?

The next four words would definitely explain:

A cup of Instant Ramen.

EVEN if it was five words- but 'a' doesn't count.

* * *

Squee. NaruHina fluffy stuff- even if I'm not very good at that. Ah well, like I said, I'll fix it up tommrowo. Anyway, I'm running a poll/vote thing. I'm trying to start to get a move on all the relationships as you can see. So, I'm wondering which one I should 'work on/write' first. So if you review, tell if you either want…

ShikaIno OR NaruHina OR NejiTen OR SasuSaku to get a move on.

Till Next Week,

-StarDragon X


	9. Chapter 9: Harsh Reality

Hello! Yes, we all finally get another chapter- at last, even though it's like, a few days later then when I said it'd be out… but yeah. Anyway, the story's going to take a turn for for drama right here.

Anyway, the results are in… and counting them all up…

ShikaIno: 0 Votes. Popular pairing huh?

NaruHina: 1 Vote. w00t. Even more popular.

SasuSaku: 1 Vote. w00t. Even more NOT popular?

NejiTen: 3 Votes I think... 0.o We've got that many NejiTen fans? Either that or I've been neglecting the pairing so far! --

That means we get NejiTen! BUT- I have to carry on with whatever is happening between Shikamaru with Ino because I've already started the climax bar...

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO

naash

Satoshi Silver Syaran

K.C.

swimtwins03

Megaolix

dreameyes

FOR REVIEWING! I FINALLY you all!

THANK YOU! Funnily enough, the more reviews I read, the more inspiration I get, the less writer's block I get, and thus the less wait time for a new chapter! Yes, this is a really bad implimation to review! Goody.

Anyway- let's go!

* * *

Naruto Shipwreck Chapter 9: 

Harsh Reality

* * *

"Heh… That's good, eh, Akamaru?" 

Inuzuka Kiba glanced at the white furred canine beside him. As he suspected Akamaru responded with a bark… Good. The weather would clear in another hour or so… Kiba looked up at the sky- the clouds were definitely getting lighter now and it had stopped its heavy downpour of rain about ten minutes ago.

Beside him, Tenten sighed, the kunoichi obviously somewhat annoyed, "Do you always have to speak one sided conversations, Kiba-kun? What did Akamaru say?"

The older teen wiped rain from her forehead and casually flicked it onto the ground. Not to say that it had been an almost pointless act- more raindrops had already started to settle on her skin.

"Hey! They're not one-sided… Akamaru's talking and I'm talking!" argued Kiba, "That makes it a two-sided conversation!"

"I suppose…" Tenten shrugged hopelessly, "So, what did he say?"

"There'll be no more rain in after another hour. It'll take us another ten minutes to get back to camp." Kiba finished with a sigh.

There had been basically zero interesting features that he could count from the area that they had searched. The only interesting thing really was the company… Kiba glanced over at Tenten who was playing with a kunai as they walked. He had to admit that she had grown in attractiveness over the two years he'd known her with the right curves here and there- but hell, no; sadly, he wasn't attracted to her in some kind of romantical way. He had no idea why.

Maybe it was the fact that every time he, or any other teenage male he knew went out anywhere with Tenten that wasn't related to a mission seemed to receive some sort of evil eye from the Hyuuga the next few days after. Huh. Who would ever really understand Hyuuga Neji anyway? Even if the protégée had become much less antisocial since they were genin, the Byakugen user wasn't much… fun.

Heck, the Jonin had somehow appeared yesterday with the reason that their paths had somehow crossed even if the shinobi and Sakura were meant to have scouted an area WAY over on the other side of the island… The heir had almost muttered, "Oh, yes… by fate, huh?" in sarcasm but kept it in. After all, his mother had taught him well the code of civilization- to a certain extent. Even Tenten didn't take in the Hyuuga's lame excuse- how stupid could that person get?

Neji had kept throwing glances at Tenten who kept looking away and, the Byakugen user even had the nerve to keep glaring at Akamaru and him - Akamaru shouted back, adding a list of rather colorful words in dog tongue. Honestly, did the white-eyed freak have to be so aggressive? He wasn't even close to having an affair with her! But the Jonin had to be overprotective anyway. And how did he, Inuzuka Kiba react to it all? He reacted to it by infuriating the shinobi even more and… Unfortunately the reader would probably never ever know what Kiba did to for-

Akamaru barked loudly at him in surprise and Tenten called out in alarm, "Kiba! Right in front-"

A heavy thud was heard, followed by indignant yelping.

Oh dear.

Inuzuka Kiba had just tripped over his own dog- a dog that was practically twice the size of him and stood out like a sore thumb. Oh dear. How embarrassing- even if the former statement had been the understatement of the year.

Tenten blinked, as if she had trouble comprehending… that he had TRIPPED over his own dog. After all, this was Inuzuka Kiba- he was more or less somewhat graceful in the forest, it was probably his second home. Kiba quickly stood up, and started to unsteadily walk again, hoping in vain that she didn't see. Of course, Tenten had perfect vision and of course, she saw Inuzuka Kiba trip over his own dog.

She smiled at him, plain pure amusement written on her face. It was obviously she was trying her best not to laugh. Akamaru wasn't helping the kunoichi's control either- he was running around, barking extremely angrily and telling his own master off! At other times, Kiba would have yelled right back, adding a string of obscenities to the dialog.

But unfortunately, there was lady, if not, a female in his midst and all in all, Inuzuka Kiba was red in the face and had started to walk in front of the two. The air around his face felt warm, which turned into hot, as he heard soft laughter behind him. Damn.

The sound carried on for another minute or so, that silly infuriating sound. Kiba froze- double damn. That was Akamaru laughing at him… wasn't it? He nearly turned round to look- but instead kept marching forward, anger replacing his previous embarrassment. How dare they-

Kiba suddenly saw a figure crash through the jungle, running towards them and paused momentarily- suddenly paranoid about tripping over another object, inanimate or animate, again. Tenten's and Akamaru's laughter stopped so suddenly that the atmosphere, perhaps humorous for an onlooker, had changed to a somewhat fearful one. Who was that…?

The figure stood up- Kiba's eyes widened. There were bruises and cuts all over the newcomer's body- he had obviously struggled in a fight. Tenten and Akamaru ran and soon stood near them- each one of their gazes fixed on the figure before them.

"Ino!" he cried, "She's- she's gone! They've taken her! Ino!"

Kiba swallowed. It was nerve-racking to see the guy like this. His eyes were struck with a certain type of fear; his body was trembling, his hands shaking. For most of his life, he had never seen him so… frightened and not calm. It was verging on scariness.

After all, this was Nara Shikamaru. He was meant to be lazy, calm and too intelligent for his own good- well that was what he was meant to be.

Nara Shikamaru seemed to be the exact opposite today.

--------------------------------------------------

Shikamaru was to say the least, devastated. To say the least, he was behaving extremely out of his personality. To say the least, he was angry, at himself, angry at Ino, and angry at the people who took her. He threw a kunai at a tree forcefully- very forcefully. The thunk was heard easily even with the sound of the rain and the tree shook with heavy vibrations.

Damn it Ino! Why did she have to go and be so stupid? Why did she have to go outside, looking for snake that he didn't actually believe in and that it was going go attack her! Especially since that snake was well over three meters long and summoned its masters which… which… carried her off.

Yes. He had tried. Really tried. He has used his high IQ to the full extent, along with his skills and abilities. But, truth to tell, he had been too late. Why? When he heard her scream he thought she was overreacting. When he heard her shriek and call for him he thought she was being too bossy and overreacting… and didn't go. Only when he heard her cry of pain, the loud hiss of a snake, and the sounds of battle… did he jump up and run outside.

But damn it… stupid Ino. The ninja, well he assumed they were ninja, knocked her unconscious and carried her off before he could do anything. Overwhelmed with anger, the Chuunin flung another kunai in no particular direction at all. He waited, anticipating the sound that would reach his ears when it hit a tree trunk, a plant, or anything else.

The thunk was replaced by the sound of wind before clinking softly onto the ground.

"You know Tenten's not going to be happy with you if you throw kunai here and there without care, right?" Temari came into view, one hand on her giant fan, another holding the kunai he had just thrown.

"Yes." Replied Shikamaru tonelessly, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to make sure you don't beat the hell out of yourself for letting Ino get kidnapped." Responded Temari, "Like you did after the mission two years ago when rescuing Uchiha Sasuke…"

"I can handle it… I'm more… mature now."

Temari looked dubiously at the large crack his other thrown kunai had made down the centre of the tree trunk, "Oh really? Somehow I find that very hard to believe."

Shikamaru didn't answer. Temari took this as an invitation to keep going,

"What are you intending to do out here anyway while it's raining anyway? It's not like you. Use your head. The others are heading in to camp- they're definitely going do all they can to find and bring her back, Shikamaru. Heck, Kiba and Tenten are completely freaked since they brought you in… You're as helpful as those ninja, or whatever they were who took Ino, you know? Gaara's waiting for you- he needs you to form a strategy of some sort to help him, and tell him everything. Come on, let's go."

He started to close his eyes briefly to regain his posture when he was hit by memories from his early childhood. Spinning in his mind, it only took moments to figure out that they were all of her- blue eyes, blonde hair.

She was arguing with him, bossing him around- every since they had been babies they grew up together, courtesy of their fathers. You couldn't exactly call them friends… in fact he used to hate her loud voice for it always snapped him out of anything he was doing and he was forced to listen to her… It was interesting now, that he suddenly decidedly she wasn't that bad… Shikamaru mumbled something under his breath and proceeded to mumble again to no one in particular-

All of a sudden, the hard cold blunt side Temari's fan slammed in to his face none too gently, wrenching him out of his thoughts. Dazed, he staggered backwards and collapsed against a tree, looking very much like a hapless drunk.

"Get a grip!" Temari snapped, "Have you lost your entire head? Analyze this whole situation- use your logic or something! Stop being so childish! Look. I am going to walk slowly back to camp. If after five minutes you haven't recovered your intelligence I am personally going to drag to my brother."

With that, the Jonin walked off, her footsteps stamping through the mud that seemed to be everywhere. Shikamaru watched her go, in quiet thought for a few moments before he made his decision.

That idiot girl had better keep herself alive… it was definitely going to be extremely troublesome…

Shikamaru stood up firmly. Taking the first step, he wobbled-

Damn it- how could he forget!

That idiot had gotten herself poisoned by a snake!

Yesterday, sweet innocent yesterday now, disappeared into oblivion as the harsh reality of everything that was happening crashed down on Shikamaru.

He began to run.

--------------------------------------------------

Oh hell, hell no. HELL NO! Tenten placed two fingers on the space just between her right eye and her forehead- hell no. Was this some kind of retarded punishment for laughing her head off at Kiba just now? She really just had refrained herself, if that was the case.

The weapons specialist glanced at the young man next to her with a frown. Neji frowned back. Hyuuga Neji, who was currently being a human ice cube momentarily. Not to actually say that that was how he behaved for most of his life… It was probably her fault for being so friendly with Kiba… Thus now she had to endure running around trying to find Ino-san with a Hyuuga glaring at her every five seconds for the rest of the day.

It was bad enough that her clothes were absolutely wet and drenched and she getting paranoid that her weapons would rust in the next hour or so but now she had to contend with all this. Tenten sighed- at least the rain had stopped. Tilting her head to look at the sky above, the Chuunin let a small smile grace her features.

The tiny, nearly nonexistent clouds were white wisps against the gigantic strikingly blue background that was called the sky. The sun was starting to burn down onto her back and you'd never ever know that an hour ago, rain had plummeted down from the blue heavens. This island's weather was a work of chaos and so were the people who were shipwrecked on it.

Taking time to recap, the teen remembered Gaara given their instructions briskly a few minutes ago. Shikamaru seemed to have cried, although with the rain still fresh on everyone's face it was hard to tell. Chouji seemed paranoid about Ino dying- though Tenten knew with a smile that the blonde would go through hell or high water before she'd admit defeat to death.

They were meant to move in their original three man teams- Tenten grimaced. Lee was nowhere to be found. Damn it, he must have stupidly gotten lost, the idiot! But even she wasn't at all angry or annoyed- she was in fact desperately worried. Lee could be really… rash at times. She only hoped his current taijutsu skills were enough for whatever enemy they were facing.

That left her and Neji- wait, they were meant to be moving now! They were behind. Neji, who was looking at her sternly, made it clear without words what he though.

"I'm sorry, Neji! I kind of got worried about Lee too, I guess…"

"Hn. Let's go."

Usual response, nothing to worry about…

The two started to bound through the treetops in a rhythmical fashion, Tenten following in behind Neji. Gods, it was almost too quiet without Lee yelling his head off… Even without Gai sensei, it was just… empty and unyouthful.

She laughed at loud at that- knowing Neji was probably glad for the peace and quiet. She blushed slightly when the Hyuuga glanced at her.

"Private joke."

"Hn." And he continued.

Usual response- as she had suspected. But what the hell…? First act strangely overprotective of her… then give her the cold shoulder…? But then, she had once had a somewhat girlish crush on him that faded away- fortunately no one noticed, saving her the embarrassment. She wasn't interested in love anymore

So concentrated in her thoughts had Tenten been that she did not notice a snake hanging from a branch in front of her. Her eyes snapped wide open, and she fought to keep her balance.

Damn it, she was going to fall- she should've have been more attentive! The ground suddenly looked a very long way away, and Tenten didn't even have time to cry out in pain as a passing branch slashed at her arm brutally.

Suddenly, a strong arm shot out. In another moment, she was back on the branch, Neji clutching her shoulder blades tightly. Tenten listened for the 'hn', instead, came,

"What were you thinking?" he snapped angrily, "These branches are up in the air- at least nine meters high- you could have broken your neck!"

Tenten looked at him strangely. Where did that come from?

"Ah… Thank you…" she said uncomfortably.

Heck… when had she ever become uncomfortable around Neji? Oh wait- that's why. She was suddenly aware, very aware; of his hands on her shoulders- her skin was uncannily warm there.

Damn… wasn't puberty over- the stage of your life where you went on mood swings and your hormones went crazy and you suddenly were attracted to people of the opposite sex? But then… her crush had faded… hadn't it?

"Damn it Tenten- you've even got a slash down your arm…"

Tenten knew what he was privately implying to himself- if they had to bandage this and how'd they'd even find bandage material, well, they'd never catch up to the rest. She grimaced as she looked at the slashed clothing on her arm- blood had already started to stain her shirt sleeve. Making a decision instantly, the Chuunin grinned at her friend briefly before she took out her kunai and sliced at her sleeve, the Hyuuga himself relinquishing his hold on her shoulders. The cloth let loose loud rips as it felt itself being torn into long strips.

In another few seconds, the long gash had been covered by reddish-pink material. Tenten mock saluted at Neji, "Ready! Let's go."

A brief moment passed between them, Neji studying her work. He gave a nod of approval. As he stood up, his fingertips ran lightly down her arm as if to second check- Tenten winced at the pain.

As the fingertips ran back up her arm, they suddenly brushed against her cheek. Shock catapulted up through Tenten but she refrained from gaping. Just even that light touch caused a blaze of heat to ignite on her skin and the Byakugen user pulled away quickly and stood up, as if he was suddenly ashamed of himself.

Neji bounded off the branch and as soon as he was a few meters away he called, "We don't have much time to catch up to the rest!"

In that brief look, Tenten saw the light hue of red that crept up his cheeks, but it faded away quickly as he waited for her. Tenten was almost tempted to place her fingers on the spot where his fingers touched her cheekbone- but she resisted, knowing Neji was half-staring at her, subtly waiting for some kind of reaction. Instead, once again, just like she had done before…

Tenten placed two fingers on the space just between her right eye and her forehead. This time, similar to the other one, Tenten looked at the Hyuuga some way in front of her. A faint hue of light red again crept up his cheeks, but pride bore it down again.

But this time, unlike the last time…

Tenten smiled.

--------------------------------------------------

Kankuro sighed.

He and Shino had actually miraculously made it to that top of that wretched mountain. The view was breathtaking- you could see the whole island. Then a minute later they ran back down again because they had drawn a rough map on a slim piece of light colored wood. That had been fun… In the sarcastic meaning, of course.

About ten minutes ago, Gaara had split them into their three man genin teams. Gaara, him, and Temari, would move forward first, then the rest of the teams. The reason? Because, it had been decided that a whole huge group of fifteen had a huge change of being spotted- they wanted to remain quiet and undetected for the present moment.

Kankuro shook his head. He had never expected this island experience to be anything like what many people talked about. He had expected it to be bad, but not this bad. Every inch of his skin not covered by some type of clothing since the rain stopped at been unmercilessly attacked by insects- anything else was sun burnt. Even if he wasn't starving or thirsty or even physically hurt, after waking up each morning he felt like someone had stabbed him in the gut with kunai- His head even sometimes felt like it was on fire. Damn it, nothing here could kill him right? Maybe everything was from this blasted sun…

But how? He was born and bred in the desert; he should be immune to sun diseases… Shit. This was no time to ponder morbid thoughts and wonder if he was going to die or not. Kankuro wiped sweat from his forehead. Either that or maybe it was…

The Puppet Master glanced at his arm where a large red welt had started to form. A few days ago when he woke up on the island, he was bit or stung by a spider of sorts. He'd ignored it till now- after all; the spider couldn't be poisonous…

"Hey! Kankuro!" Temari called out, "Are you okay? Come here- let me check!"

Gaara glanced back at him, concern on his younger brother's face. Kankuro crossed his arms, annoyed. He didn't want to hold everyone up like he was the weakling of the lot.

"I'm fine!" he snapped, "Let's keep going!"

Temari advanced towards him, strapping her fan on her back. Kankuro swore softly. Temari had always started to take the role of their mother- even if she didn't like it, she was the cook in their house and the one who overseen basic medical treatment. She would definitely go on about all of this! He just knew it… She took off his infamous cat flap hat and placed one palm on his forehead. His skin relaxed under her touch- her hand was freezing, and somewhat felt nice on his hot skin. Had she been touching ice or something like that!

Temari jumped back, "Kankuro. It's a damn fire on your forehead! You're sick aren't you?"

Kankuro looked around, struggling to find an excuse, "Gah. I guess it's my clothes… But I can't take them off anyway- otherwise those insects will murder me."

Temari nodded, though she looked suspicious, "Here. At least drink some water!"

Kankuro accepted the water bag gratefully and tried to ignore the fact that his head felt like it was going to explode- he was probably over reacting or something like that. He drank the water fast, taking a few hasty gulps before throwing it back to Temari. Wiping his mouth with one hand, he nodded.

"Okay! Let's go!"

His siblings nodded as well and it wasn't long before all three were traversing throughout the jungle. Positioning himself at the back of the group, Kankuro hoped they would all forget about all of this- Gaara glanced at him again. Damn. Kankuro managed a weak smile. He hoped it would all go away soon- the last time he been knocked out like this, it was when Gaara was kidnapped. It wasn't an incredibly great feeling, feeling that you stuck on a bed unable to do anything…

"I think I've found something." Gaara said, stopping where he was.

Kankuro jumped over, Temari following in behind him.

"The others should be coming," said Gaara glancing over his shoulder, "They should have picked up on our trail. Shikamaru and Chouji will be coming first, then the rest of them."

Kankuro nodded, slightly but his eyes were transfixed at the sight before him.

Staring at the swamp that stood before them, Kankuro shook his head in disbelief.

Yamanaka Ino was somewhere in there?

The place had heavy mist rising from it, obscuring all vision, and it seemed to be an entangled dangerous mess of mud and water- the bubbles gurgling furiously in a puddle of water nearby didn't help his moral either. What kind of forsaken island where they on? From sweltering hot jungle, to beaches, to mountains… TO A SWAMP?

Someone religious had better start praying- they were definitely going to need it.

* * *

W00t. It's getting to be a heartache writing Tenten… -- Another reason why this is late- again… I had extreme writer's block when someone popular by some(she has her own dang Fan Club 0.o) had this sadly intelligent small essay which bashed Tenten in saying she had no character on NarutoFan Forums. 

Then that person when on to describe WHY she had no character and on and on. And at the moment of time I was just about to write the Tenten part/POV of my 'fic- how coincidental. So I went back to a site which had a brilliant character study on her to go 'find' Tenten's character again- . I'm still struggling though!

That may be why I need help with the NejiTen-ness. Especially since the want for it is an all time HIGH- any ideas? I'm struggling between a cold Neji or something else as from what I've seen from Neji in canon, he actually isn't that cold to Tenten...

Yes- whatever NejiTen fluff I crammed in, I was intended that for later… I was intending them to get into a big ugly fight then make up and half lots of fluff but then loads of 'fics to that.

Then I keep getting all these great plot-bunniez that I actually want to write and I get writers block on this…-- Life is cruel.

Oh, and on another note, I don't actually really don't like swearing of any sort- from the damn to the f to whatever… Even if you see it somewhat in the story- but then, since I try my best to keep them in character as possible, for an expletetive I don't think someone like Naruto or Sakura is going to use something like 'Dangnabbit' instead of 'Damn', right? Especially when the anime/manga displays it for them all. So while I really don't like using them, I try my best to keep it at a low.

W00t again. Yeah- looking back, I've pretty much blurted about have the things that have nothing to do with you but that's all right!

Thanks for reading! And review- and read the next chappie!

-StarDragon X


	10. Chapter 10: Plans Fears Capture

Hello! Yes. I know I kind of promised an early update and now it's late… BUT! I have a reason. A really good reason- actually REASONS!

nodnod

Firstly, my Internet was down, so without that, I couldn't upload anything to meh -.-.

Secondly, it's um… writer's block, but reviews help that morenods,

Thirdly, I've been doing extra research, ya know on Kankuro's little illness thing? By the way, if anyone knows anything about poisons and venoms and medical science and medical knowledge please review and tell me. I'm absolutely clueless. 0.o I'm making up a lot of it and I'm using my logical so it sounds believable.

Lastly, sorry again for the long wait!

On an extra note, for the various ruler/divider lines you normally see at the chapter title and chapter end... little ruler buttons that I use don't work currently... So until they DO work, I'll have to deal with using '---'s.

OMG… I think I cramped up my whole body- I have complete writer's block! GAG. 0.o I've been trying for the past hour trying to come up things for all these stupid characters to do… 0.o It may not sound like much but hey- I've got like 15 characters to write, keep in character, and kind of develop, and make them grow or something like that…

Anyway, ideas- I will GLOMP you and stuff your mouth with cookies if you give me an idea- double bonus if it'd 'develop' a character here. I'm seriously suffering from writer's block. I don't have any problems with the storyline- just the characters and what they're meant to do. Because, half of these characters and starting to be 'filler' run arounds, if you get what I mean. If you don't I don't care…

Anyway, THANK YOU TO ALL WHO REVIEWED! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Ahem. Now on to the next chapter- oh wait. Disclaimer.

**DISCLAIMER:** You know what? I AM SO FLIPPING SICK OF DOING THIS STUPID STUPID DISCLAIMERS! Everyone knows basically the one important thing which I DON'T own here and thus, after this disclaimer, there will be no more in this story! YES! I'm using this one to cover the rest of the chapters. CAUSE I AM SO FLIPPING SICK SICK SICK OF IT!

Ah there we go. That felt better. Now you can go read and whatnot!

* * *

Naruto Shipwreck Chapter 10:

Plans... Fears... Capture.

* * *

"It's not a swamp Kankuro." Gaara looked at his elder brother, concerned.

For a few seconds, the Kazekage nearly thought he heard wrong. But after Kankuro had said the word quite a few times… there had to be something wrong with his brother. Gaara surveyed the area- it was wet… but definitely not a swamp.

"It's complete jungle- the only thing of interest, like I said earlier…" Gaara pointed at a narrow man made path, "Is that."

"You mean… the alligator?" Kankuro followed his finger.

Gaara swallowed.

Temari swiveled to face her brother, "Kankuro. It's a rock… Damn it- I am not caring about your damned excuses anymore! Gaara… how long till the rest are here? We NEED a medic nin- we need Sakura now…"

"They should be coming soon."

"It can't be soon- it has to be now! Kankuro how did you- what happened to you? You feel like you're on fire, you're getting delusional- this is serious! Tell us!"

Gaara watched as Kankuro slunk down against the tree trunk and averted his eyes, trying to evade the question.

"Kankuro." Gaara looked directly at his brother's eyes, his tone demanding.

"All right all right… I was bitten by a spider or something a few days ago- just some mild side effects! There's no need to worry, damn it!"

Kankuro glared defiantly around.

Gaara shook his head, "Why didn't you ask Sakura before this…?"

"I didn't know- it only got this… bad today. Everyone's been complaining of the heat, headaches from the sun! What's the difference if my headache hurts a little more or if I have an extra mark on my skin?"

"What mark!" Temari rounded in on her younger brother.

Kankuro swore under his breath. Gaara sighed. From experience he personally knew that many times his brother, as anyone else hated having any type of weakness exposed. But even so… this wasn't really like Kankuro.

Gaara watched as his older brother showed his arm to Temari where indeed, a large red welt on his skin stood out amongst the numerous insect bites. The Kazekage took this time to sit down and watch his siblings, Kankuro grumbling, Temari scolding. Family. Even with the dark foreboding that Kankuro could and probably was in deep danger- Gaara still wanted to hold onto this moment in time forever- just the three of them.

It was almost nonexistent that they had times like these anymore. Just the three of them- doing things… like normal people did- or as normal as it could get. Gaara knew it was childish to want something like that to happen, but he didn't care. He had no childhood- every memory from it was plagued with people yelling and screaming at him.

So even if his 'family' was devoid of a real mother or father- he at least had them. Gaara glanced at his siblings. Sometimes… he wondered if this was anything like a real family. It was like some sort of dream- he knew any moment he'd wake up with the cruel reality bearing down on him, but until then, he'd at least enjoy what he'd had-

"Found you guys- finally!" Inuzuka Kiba came into view with Akamaru, "Your scent was just about washed away with the rain…"

Gaara's eyes snapped towards the Chuunin, his hopes of keeping his little 'fantasy' alive a little longer disappearing like a mirage in a desert.

"Where's Sakura?" asked Temari immediately.

"Um… Ah…" Kiba stuttered, not expecting this sort of greeting.

"She'll be coming in a few moments." Said Aburame Shino- the youth landed on a nearby tree branch.

Shino was followed by Hyuuga Hinata who came before Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru. Gaara dove in into his mind- Neji and Tenten would probably come next… then, finally Sakura, Naruto, and the Uchiha. At least, that was the order in which they all set out…

"Why are stopping!" demanded Chouji suddenly, "Have you forgotten about Ino!"

Shikamaru was too wise to say anything rashly but his face voiced the same expression as Chouji.

"We need Sakura- something's happened to Kankuro." Said Gaara.

Almost immediately, everyone crowded around Kankuro. Gaara glanced at them, small amusement on his face.

"I'm all right…" mumbled Kankuro, evidently irritated.

But no one believed him, of course. Tenten and Hyuuga Neji came next, one of Tenten's arms bandaged up roughly. Finally, came Team 7 of the Rookie 9- Uzamaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sakura- you've finally come!" Temari looked relieved, "Something's wrong with Kankuro…"

Immediately the medic nin peered at Kankuro, her face alight with concern, her green orbs scanning the Jonin's body.

"He's half poisoned by some sort of spider." Said Aburame Shino first.

"Wha- how you know?" asked Naruto, surprised, "Sakura-chan's the medic nin… not you…"

"Shino knows anything and everything about insects," pointed out Kiba to Naruto.

"Do you know how poisonous?" asked Sakura, glancing up the Chuunin.

"Judging by the bite size… the spider shouldn't really have been too poisonous… but-"

Everyone hung on to that 'but', even Gaara- to a certain extent.

"Kankuro- you've been affected by some sort of poison before, right?"

"Yes…?"

"Well, your immune systems to poison, from what I know, should have been weakened by that event. So even a bite from a less poisonous spider could but your life at risk."

Sakura shook her head, "Since Kankuro's had a poison effect him before… normally the body would have built up some sort of immunity towards it…"

"It didn't really have time to build up immunity…" said Shino quietly, "You took it out personally- the immune system didn't 'conquer' it and get stronger…"

The medic-nin swallowed, "You're right. And…"

Suddenly the Chuunin noticed the amount of worried looks she received.

"I'll need some water for him- he's parched." She said quickly, "Other then that, I can cure his delusional state and he'll be alright to battle. He just needs someone to watch out for his back."

Gaara's glanced at her. She was hiding something… something a lot worse then the already bad situation. He'd have to ask her later- but then… did he really want to know?

--------------------------------------------------

Shikamaru sighed, "Well- the people… who captured Ino are extremely fast. I'm quite sure they're ninja- they had some sort of forehead protector on. Anyway, these people- they left no trail… Besides that look at the broken twigs and footprints- it's a single person, not a group."

Akimichi Chouji glanced at his friend- at his height he practically towered over everyone else in the jungle. Not that he really minded though. Shikamaru glanced rather skeptically at the path- the path that Gaara had stopped to look at. Presently they were laying at their choices for action.

The path in front of him was definitely man made and the person who had last used it, seemed to be in a great rush- footprints, broken twigs and leaves…

Suddenly Tenten pushed through the group, Neji behind her.

"That…" the kunoichi inspected the footprints and held up a sack of fruit, "I think that a trail left by Lee…"

"We found the fruit some way off from here," continued Hyuuga Neji, "He either was being very intelligent… or extremely idiotical."

Kiba came forward, and bent down on one knee, surveying the various tell tale tracks, Akamaru sniffing beside him.

"It's hard to tell with the rain- but… it should be him- Lee, that is." He said.

"So are we… or aren't we going to follow that trail?" asked Chouji, reasonably impatient.

Why were they dawdling about like this…? Ino could be… dead, by now, or in a torture chamber. Even if she had cases of bossiness here and there- it was almost impossible to imagine a life, or even a day without Yamanaka Ino. It would be… too quiet.

"Come to think of it…" Naruto spoke up, "Where do these kidnappers live? We've basically searched this island through and through…"

At this point Sakura and Neji seemed to grow uncomfortable. Which was quite odd- especially for Neji. From experience, Chouji knew that most emotions the genius felt were hidden under a perfect mask.

"Do you have anything you might want to add?" Gaara, asked rather pointedly.

Everyone in turn glanced at the two. It was obvious they were hiding something.

"Well um… if you head north west from here… we might find their village- or where they come from…" babbled Sakura, her voice taking on a ridiculously joyful tone.

"Yeah… Of course, they didn't scout their own area… Especially since the two were scouting all the way into our area…" Uchiha Sasuke pointed out, a small tone of annoyance being directed at Neji.

"They came into ours too- and that's a long way from wherever they scout." Agreed Kiba, "You guys have no sense of direction!"

"I know!" agreed Sakura back all too happily.

"And you weren't scouting your area because…?" Gaara's aquamarine eyes pierced into Sakura's green ones.

"Anyway-" Shikamaru broke in, "What are we going to do? It's clear that if we follow this trail there's a possibility we might find Ino and we'll probably find Rock Lee… Presently this our only plan of action, unless"

"I say we go for the trail." Said Kiba, "It's most likely Ino's kidnappers went this way as well. Everywhere else, judging from terrain and all that is… not as likely."

Akamaru barked in agreement. Chouji tapped his foot impatiently- even if his foot made tiny shock waves ripple through the ground. He didn't care; he just wanted to get a move on the situation. More or less everyone agreed with Kiba and Gaara of course decided to go that way. So they could go, right?

"Let's go!" said Naruto, voicing Chouji's exact same feelings.

"We need to check the equipment first and have a basic plan," said Neji, "It's pointless running into unknown territory without it- you'd get yourself killed."

Naruto made some sort of disagreeable mutter which everyone ignored.

"Shikamaru and I have worked out the battle formations…" Gaara glanced at Shikamaru, "Care to explain them?"

Chouji nodded. This was kind of like when the tried to retrieve Sasuke two years ago- except for a few things. They were going to complete their mission fully this time, they had more people, and hopefully they were all going to come out of it without having a very close-to-death experience.

"Firstly, before I go into the exact positions, note that we will be scattered and not in an exact line. Make sure that wherever you are, you can see the people in front of you and behind you. Since we want to move before any scent or trail vanishes for Kiba, the orders are going to be fast and I'm not explaining them twice."

Shikamaru paused to catch his breath and let it sink in for the slower people in the group, no names mentioned, of course.

"Okay. Firstly, we of course have Kiba and Akamaru- our trackers. They pretty much can watch out for each other. Secondly, you have Gaara and I more or less beside each other so we can back each other up and he can give orders. Next we will have Neji- your primary orders are to use your Byakugen to scan the whole front area for upcoming attacks and traps."

Shikamaru continued, his voice picking up pace, "Sasuke will be with Neji to give support. Behind them, Tenten, our long ranged fighter will give backup support for any fighting. In the middle we will have Sakura and Kankuro-"

"I don't need anymore bodyguards then necessarily." Interrupted Kankuro fiercely, "Sakura said I can fight."

"I said you also needed someone to watch your back. Who better then the medic nin?" Sakura grinned at him apologetically, "So you'll be stuck with me- and that'll be in the middle, since that's the normal position for me. Besides, you're a long range fighter. It all fits, huh, Shikamaru?"

Kankuro muttered under his breath but otherwise kept quiet upon seeing Shikamaru nod.

"Of course, Chouji and Naruto will be roughly in the middle, so they can help everyone. Temari comes next, her orders the same as Tenten. Next, at the back come Hinata and Shino. Shino, you will support Hinata, and watch out for her while she uses the Byakugen to scan the back area."

"Are we nearly done yet? The scent of Lee is starting to fade…" said Kiba anxiously.

"Yes we are." Replied Gaara, "I suppose no one has any objections or questions so all we need to do is sort out arms quickly- very quickly. The scrolls, Tenten?"

The Kazekage glanced at Tenten who had been half hiding behind Neji. No… Not THIS again. Chouji cursed loudly- very loudly.

--------------------------------------------------

Haruno Sakura brushed a lock of pink hair behind her ear and wondered with growing anxiety if they'd reach Ino in time and if they'd be able to find whoever kidnapped her… It was hard to believe that their time on this island had suddenly taken a sharp turn. Her anger towards Naruto from the other suddenly seemed so pathetic and unreal to today where she had no idea if she was going to see her best friend again.

The pink haired kunoichi shook the thoughts away. Hah. Who was she to get worried about Yamanaka Ino? That pig headed idiot was probably driving her captors insane by her constant jabbering…. Not that Sakura felt any better by it…

Sakura shook the thoughts away again. She had to stop being so paranoid. She had to think of something else… A sudden image of Uchiha Sasuke brushed into the Chuunin's mind. No… Hell no… Not him… Why did HE have to get into her thoughts at this time?

Try as she might, this time Sakura could not evade these troublesome thoughts. The harsh words from the day before had been etched into her mind. Even when she thought she hadn't done anything to him… even when she had dropped the 'kun' most times when she called him… he still seemed to dislike her… why?

If anything, their relationship was worse from when it started two years ago. What did he expect of her? Even when she stood firm in her faith towards him, even against Ino and the rest… when he came back… Naruto dragging the heir back one fateful day… She suddenly couldn't really face him… talk to him…

Then, on the boat, when she had found out she was in an opposite cabin to him, she squealed with pleasure… Strange. But although, Sakura did not know it, that had been a side of Inner Sakura… And Outer Sakura? She was trying to stop romantical feelings (and little did she know it ANY feelings) for her old team mate from cropping up…

She glanced at Kankuro beside her. The Jonin was definitely none to amiable towards her, and she looked away, half feeling guilty. She knew everyone half expected her to cure him fully automatically. But then… things weren't so… as simple as that. Tsundae-sama probably could cure him- but then, she was one of the most amazing medic-nin ever. After all, she had cured Gaara-sama, hadn't she?

Speaking of which, Sakura nearly lost balance as the Kazekage seemingly appeared out of nowhere beside her. Sakura cringed, knowing exactly what Gaara had come to talk to her about. Damn it… there wasn't an easy answer to this.

"Sakura…" started Gaara slowly.

"Yes, Gaara-sama?" replied Sakura back with equal slowness, dreading the next few sentences.

"How sick is Kankuro. I want nothing but the truth this time."

Sakura nodded mutely, trying to pull a string of words together, trying to figure out how to break it gently to him. It was best to do it in private…

Sakura glanced at Temari behind her, "I just need to talk to Gaara, nothing big, could you just watch over Kankuro for me, Temari-san?"

Even as she broke away from the group wit the Kazekage beside her, Sakura felt another twinge of guilt as she saw Kankuro's face. She knew it was almost cruel, but considering his state, precautions had to be taken.

"Before I go on, I must warn you not to behave rashly at all." warned Sakura.

"Have I ever acted rash?" the words might have sounded arrogant, but with Gaara, Sakura knew he was stating the pure truth.

"No… but you might after this." Sakura said softly.

"Hurry up." He said bluntly, "Don't stop evading it, and say whatever you need to say, Sakura!"

"Well… Well…" mumbled Sakura, "Kankuro desperately needs professional medical care... It's- it's outofmyreach. WeneedTsundaesama."

The last few sentences were spoken rushed, and Sakura knew that Gaara only just grappled them into his brain.

"You are a professional medic-nin."

Sakura swallowed. She hadn't wanted to admit it. Yes, she wanted to surpass Tsundae-sama, but… she had already proven herself capable to heal. Yet, the truth that she couldn't really help Kankuro had been shoved bluntly into her face. She could try to save him, but things would be more… drastic.

"I don't have the experience- I could… but it's extremely risky. The sort of treatment he needs… it's kind of like what happened to Hyuuga Neji when he and the rest of the Konoha genin returned from their mission… of not retrieving Uchiha Sasuke."

Gaara half froze but recovered instantly, "What do you mean?"

"I know, Kankuro still looks pretty much fine… but then, most of the current damage so far is internal. If it starts to become external… then it'll be kind of too late… His blood so far is being circulated with poison- Most of it still flowing from that welt on his arm. From the bite he has received, it seems that a large amount of poison has been stored on that lump of skin…"

"What is going happen to him…" Gaara's voice was filled with as much dread as Sakura had.

"For now, he only has a fever and other mild effects. Shortly, he's going to start vomiting, feel pain, and he may have trouble breathing. The next step is that he will start to lose his senses and… other things…"

Sakura trailed off, knowing, that she had said enough already.

"And… and…" Gaara said hoarsely, "How could you… cure him… There has to be a way to cure him…"

Sakura bit her lip, almost drawing blood, she had expected this, "If we got him back, if we get out of here and get to a village-"

"DAMN IT! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DO… AS LONG AS YOU KEEP HIM ALIVE!"

Sakura's eyes widened, it was almost scary… that look in his eyes… The Kazekage was now breathing heavily, and has just refrained from shouting lest the others hear.

"Well…"

Sakura blinked back fear and gazed directly into the eyes of Suna's Kage,

"The first step, only the first step… is to amputate part of his arm off…"

--------------------------------------------------

"Who you think has kidnapped Ino-san, Shino-kun?" asked Hinata softly, as the heiress scanned the area with her Byakugen.

Shino paused for a moment in thought, "I believe there's a hidden village of ninja living on this island. Shikamaru and Gaara have probably stumbled upon that fact too."

"Ninja…" said Hinata slowly, as if trying out the word, "It does seem to fit."

"Yes, it does." Agreed Shino, "But, since we haven't encountered these ninja before…. They probably will and seem to have different rules and regulations."

Shino glanced in front of him, where Gaara was bounding away to the farther front of the group while Sakura headed back to Kankuro. Judging by the looks on their faces, Kankuro was quite ill… But then, he would be. When he had inspected the wound, he noticed quite a few things, which he told Sakura in private, not wanting to alarm the others.

"Shino…" started Hinata, almost afraid.

"Yes…?" answered the Chuunin calmly.

He was used to things like this. Hinata sometimes took a while to voice her opinions.

"Do you think we will get out of this island…?"

Shino pushed his sunglasses further up the bridge of his nose. He knew that this was an important question.

So he answered, as truthfully as he could, "Yes."

That single word seemed to put his team mate in some relief and nodded in reply before she looked to her left and right, looking for enemies.

They continued on in silence for another few minutes. Each pondering their situation and each thinking of what would happen in their future. Truth to be told, Shino was feeling at the peak of his abilities in this jungle.

The Aburame Clan originally descended from a tropical place like this and no doubt Shino recognized many at the flora and fauna in this place. Even so, while he knew there must be humans on this isle… there seemed to be no human trace of footprint. This knowledge alone was rather disconcerting and Shino knew that Kiba had discovered the same thing with Akamaru earlier on.

Kiba had informed him of this and both agreed to only tell Shikamaru and Gaara. But even so, their… enemy, as he could call it, was definitely not going to give up Ino without a fight- a very dear and costly fight, it seemed.

Shino gritted his teeth, the emotion hidden behind his sunglasses and clothes. Last time, the rest of the shinobi had run off idiotically after the Uchiha and came back half-dead. This time, at least, he was there, however arrogant it may have sounded, the Aburame didn't really care.

"Shino!" Hinata's voice was soft, almost nonexistent.

The black haired teen glanced at the Hyuuga, half wondering what she meant. Then, a small black insect of his landed on his shoulder. In that single moment Shino also recognized what was happening.

"Yes… You're right. Hinata." Whispered Shino back.

He raised his head, and opened his mouth, hoping he'd be fast enough-

"Everyone!" Shino's voice was urgent, "Scatter, now-"

But before he could get the full message across, and run himself, a large object crashed onto his forehead, sending him forcefully towards the ground.

Shit… Too late.

He felt his eyes closing and the scattering of his insects over his skin. Somewhere far off, he heard a scream. In a remote recess of his brain, several fear alarms started to ring wildly, a feeling he had not felt in quite a while.

After all… he could be dying… or simply unconscious… And- these… things… they were. so. Fast. His thoughts began to fragment themselves unwillingly. Hinata. Where? Going… out.

It was then that Aburame Shino's world faded into blackness and there was no more… presently.

---

Yo! Done. Sorry that Shino's bit was really tiny… But, I seriously wanted to get this out, so there you have it.

Thanks for reading, hope you DO bother to review, and read the next chapter!

-StarDragon X


	11. Chapter 11: Nightmare

I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

Yes I do. I'm REALLY REALLY sorry for the LATE update… I know it's like… even later then the normal lateness. Way later…

But rest assured it's here and that's what matters, right?

Anyway, the reason for lateness?

Firstly I've been sick…

Next I've been preparing speeches for school (don't ask)…

And then I had writer's block- like usual!

AND THEN, I neglected this and beta-ed for other people and did other stuff while trying to stimulate my creativity bar.

AND THEN I felt bad about this so then I buckled down to write…

And then finally I have to spend a few days writing this!

There we go!

Oh and would anyone at all like to be my beta reader…?

A lot of my writing, like any author has a loads mistakes which I can't see… from past experience I normally re-read chapters and stuff that don't make sense or mysteries that are never solved or things like that… I'm preferably looking for someone So, if any of youz would like to beta I'd be REALLY grateful!

PM, email, or just review!

Nextly, the much loved reviewers! GO YOU ALL! YOU SO SO ROCK!

A review count of 11 for the last chapter SQUEE instant love XD

Thank you to all! Frankly, I'm gobsmacked. I thought this would be struggling to get along… but I suppose people like this kind of… stuff better then I thought!

THANK YOU TO…

I-Luff-Cheese

WeAPoNLoVingHYUgA

Two stupidd

Wilddog14

NoneAvailable

Goth-punkchick

Miss Anonymous Hp

Naash

K.C.

Lanie-chan

THANK YOU VERY VERY much, all of youz!

AND, a HUGE HUGE big thanks HAS to go to Miss Anonymous Hp for her last review… Her LONG review 0.o Last chapter I asked for help with medical knowledge and all that yadda yadda stuff (so I could write Kankuro being sick better) AND some plot for all the characters here (like Chouji… is just there he isn't that involved/vital to the plot i.e. he hasn't gotten seriously ill or yadda yadda ya). ANYWAY, miss anonymous hp oh so VERY nicely in her very long lovely review told me exactly symptoms of poison and stuff like that ALONG with giving me a list of how to kind of… kill and torture everybody on the cast list- wound infection for Tenten, overdose of sunburn for the Hyuuga pair… yes. Anyway, SHE is the reason why this isn't actually late-ER because I have way less writer's block and I feel loved by her in depth review! THANK YOU!

So… now we can get on with the chapter, right? Not yet. I'm still searching for 'plot' stuff for characters like Chouji and Shino to do so whenever the story's at their POV they don't just sit their like a lame sitting duck and be the narrator but actually have the limelight focused on them.

Now you can go read it. Be warned… the next three or so chapters are taking the plunge into drama and darker themes. BUT, the humor will come back when Rock Lee comes back- yes, our beloved Lee-san won't be appearing for another few chapters… He's… somewhere.

Enjoy!

* * *

Shipwreck Chapter 11:

Nightmare

* * *

The first thing Hinata saw upon waking was nothing- nothing but a deep dark blackness. Slowly gathering her thoughts the heir wondered with growing dread… if she was dead. No. Father had always described heaven as something different to her… and she'd always assumed there'd be blue skies, lots of light, and a peaceful atmosphere… This, on the other hand, felt far from peaceful, the presence of something incredibly evil lingering here and a sense of claustrophobia struck the heir. Hell?

A sudden surge of sore harsh pain ran up and down her right arm, as if her body was shaking its head mentally in a relieved way. She couldn't be dead then, could she? As far as she knew… the dead did not feel pain. But even so, through the darkness, Hinata reached out gingerly to touch the arm as if she was not convinced. How… how… had she broken it? As soon as her fingers met flesh and recognized this arm as broken, images started to flash in consecutive order through her mind.

It was somewhat like seeing a movie with your eyes blinking furiously all the time… Hinata swallowed upon remembrance… Shino… Sensing something… Seeing someone… No more.

"Hinata….?"

The Chuunin looked around her, and involuntarily half curled up into a ball. Who knew her name…? Who was that…? She tried to bring her right arm up, to start some sort of jutsu for light- but she realized with the pain that came that her right arm would be deemed useless for a while… And even so… Hinata's eyes widened- she had no chakra… and yet… she didn't remember… using her chakra. They… They must have done something to her!

Fearful and still half-dazed from her lapse of unconsciousness, Hinata crawled to the farthest corner, trying to get away from the voice. She had no kunais… no weapons… no chakra. Her right arm was broken… The teen trembled, her feelings of vulnerability, helplessness, and confusion building up. Who was that?

"Hinata-san. It's Temari… and Sakura." It sounded soothing and reassuring- albeit weak… a trait Hinata had never associated with Temari.

She relaxed and turned her head in the direction of the voice. Hinata stumbled over to the other two quickly, almost too quickly as if she was afraid that the others would disappear if she was too slow. When she could at last touch Sakura's face and hear Temari's breathing only did then Hyuuga Hinata sank into the floor, the short distance already exhausting her.

"Wher-where are we…?" she asked.

"We're being kept in a cage…" replied Temari quietly, tapping a tough wicker stick wall beside her, "They kept all the kunoichi together- I'm assuming the others are locked up like us… and they of course took the weapons."

Weapons… kunoichi… there was something lingering at the back of Hinata's mind… What was it…? Then it hit her.

"Where's Tenten?"

"I'm treating her. I found a wound on a arm that's going to get infected soon…" the pink haired teen sighed, "Why didn't she tell me earlier…? Now I don't even have any bandages or water or anything… they took it all…whoever they are."

"She's asleep," added Temari, "Those damned people… they took our chakra. They took my fan. Kankuro's dying. Ino's off somewhere. Sakura's so weak she can't even punch through these damned, damned walls! We're starving. We're extremely weak. They're so… so twisted!"

At this, the Jonin tried to bang on the floor in fury, but her fist seemed to crumple on impact, and her arm seemed to go slack with weakness. This fact alone heightened Hinata's fears. Temari- Temari who was strong, who had never seemingly lost a battle, Temari who seemed indestructible… it was almost wrong that she be so weak and tired…

A sudden glow and soft hum came into existent, surprising Hinata- that green light… medical jutsu… but…

"No chakra…" she murmured.

Through the dim light, Sakura gave a soft smile, "I stored some in a band Tsundae-sama once gave me. They never thought of taking that away. I'm finishing up the treatment on Tenten's arm- at least, as far as I am able to. I need water and soap to clean it out… Everyone else is probably going to go down with some sort of morbid disease… Hell… what are they going to do to us next!"

The three fell back into silence, Temari and Hinata having no answer for Sakura's last statement.

"Oh damn. Your arm Hinata! Here!"

Quickly, Sakura let her arms glow green in some sort of medical jutsu over Hinata's arm-

Sudden light flooded into the cage as the door slid to one side. The Hyuuga closed her eyes tightly, the brightness being too much for her. Temari shielded her eyes and Sakura stopped her work, the medic-nin wincing. Tenten finally awoke, the teen groaning and blocking out the light.

Even before they had gotten used to the light, in those first seconds that spots danced in their eyes did Hinata felt herself fly backwards and hit the back wall of the cage, her broken arm sending out large signals of pain. Hinata gave a soft cry of pain and she shook her head. What had just happened! Were they-were they going to do something else? The wall that she had crashed into, in fact the whole cage seemed vibrate and shake with a large great force. Whoever it was… whatever it was… it was incredibly strong. Hinata shakily glanced around, fearful of what 'it' was.

Sakura was suddenly thrown to one side, crashing into Tenten. A few hours ago they might have all fought back and won easily… but this… thing was strong and added to the fact that they were beginning to lean on being starving- they hadn't really eaten since Lee had lost the food. Their weapons… their normally armaments were gone and their chakra was out. They were at this thing's will- this man's will. Hinata saw the brief silhouette of him amidst the streaming white light.

The man punched Sakura in the cheek but was quickly intervened by Temari.

"You bastard!" yelled Temari summoning up her energy, as she tried to land a fist on the intruder, "How dare you!"

But she missed- Temari was a long ranged fighter… not a taijutsu specialist. That added to the fact that the man seemed to be the top of his condition, unlike the Sand Nin. The man stooped close to Hinata after dodging Temari's blow,

"Think you can deceive us?" he whispered fiercely, "Don't ever, ever, fool yourself into thinking that you can get away with anything here. You are at our beck and call. We know who you are. We watch your every move. From now on, secrecy for you is nonexistent."

With that, he slapped her across the face and in a few more moments the four were in darkness again. Hinata trembled and hugged her knees close to her, taking care to exclude her right arm. She vaguely heard Temari ask her repeatedly if she was alright, but Hinata didn't answer, her whole body shaking.

That man…

Hinata trembled again and hugged her knees tighter, the shocking image of his face still fresh in her mind… To think… he had punched her, he had been that close to them all… it was terrifying. What else could he have done if he had really wanted to…? The shinobi who was responsible for countless deaths… the man who seemed to have no end of evil… But… The Hyuuga began to wonder if he was really who she thought him to be… but… who else… looked like that…? Who else could it be…? He had been described to her clearly- very clearly many times… by shinobi in hushed voices.

The unearthly white skin… the black hair… even those yellow eyes…

Hinata nodded her head surely, if not fearfully.

It had to be Orochimaru.

--------------------------------------------------

White light blared into the cage, startling its occupants, Nara Shikamaru being one of them. A daunting figure stood at its entrance and the man gazed around disdainfully, as if he had better things to do. Once he had received his vision back, the Chuunin glanced up at the stranger. The word 'daunting' was normally used along with words such as big, muscular, tall, strong. But in this case, the word daunting was accompanied by an average stature, lean… but there was something about his eyes… which were a hideous shade of yellow that completed the effect.

"Get up… now." The words were spoken in a slick low voice which though, as Shikamaru observed, were not enforced by mere brute force but had something else which the genius could not put his finger on.

They all scrambled to their feet, albeit, this took several seconds for the whole group was getting comparatively weak now- Shino, Chouji, Neji, Sasuke and him. Shikamaru caught something, shining in the light- a… forehead protector? It would be logical… considering that the people who knocked them all out and Ino were people of high skill and speed… Still. A hidden shinobi village on this small obscure island? One that no one had ever heard of? That was almost- Chouji nudged him gently as the Chuunin staggered out of the cage- Shikamaru caught on at once and immediately started to fall into the line.

"Eyes directed into the backs of the person in front of you," he directed from somewhere off to the right before suddenly bumping into Sasuke.

Even with the smallest inkling of force the Uchiha tumbled to the ground and the procession stopped. Shikamaru spared himself a glance, and when he did, his eyes narrowed slightly. The Uchiha was obviously struggling to stand up, and knowing that he was indeed 'struggling', left red marks on his cheeks and pride.

"My, my…" drawled the man maliciously, "Konoha nin, of the famed but quite overrated Uchiha Clan as shown here. Red eyes to match his cheeks- my, my, I didn't know that Uchiha Sasuke would be so weak. Genius and protégée, joined Team 7 of the Kakashi, betrayed his own friends and village just for power and still… after all these years- still stands in his brother Itachi's shadow. Isn't that right… Sasuke-kun?"

Anger was evident on Sasuke's face but the shinobi said nothing and swallowing his pride got back into his place in line, knowing that this was not a man to be trifled with. But while anger might have been enough for the Uchiha, shock was the emotion for the Nara- how did this… guy know all of that? He already doubted that the people in this village contacted any other villages or knew much about other shinobi villages- and even if they did, how would any outsider know which particular team Sasuke joined…? Even if the details were minute and seemingly worthless, the Chuunin stored it away, knowing that it would be useful later.

The line soon got moving again, Shikamaru keeping his eyes bored in the back of Shino who was in front of him. The sun soon gleefully bored down on their backs causing perspiration to run freely down foreheads and chins. A minute or so passed uneventfully, the man in charge of them all thankfully not making any comments at all other then to prod people in the right direction with a stick. A tinge of blonde in a hut caught the edge of Shikamaru's eye followed by a ragged dirty purple… Ino? Yes… but what the hell!

What did they… DO to her? She might as well have been dead for the state that her body was in: bruises, cuts, the works… and was that… Puncture marks on her wrist! Ino may have been vain, loud and bossy… but she didn't deserve anything like this…

With a hesitation or heeding what the consequences might be, the fifteen year old broke off from the line and walked towards the hut, anxiety mounting on his face. The minute the Nara stepped into the small shack, he knew something was wrong. Maybe it was the large amount of sharp and foreign metal needles and operational apparatus that stood on a small table… or the strange odor in the air… whatever it was, one would never know. But what one would know, was that Ino opened her eyes slightly… and giggled.

"I-Ino…?"

"Heeheehee! You look s-so strange Shikamaru-kun… heehee!" The blonde pointed a shaky finger at him, amidst her giggles, "You're all wobbly and-and, you're heads way bigger then your body! I guess your brain finally split, huh!"

Shikamaru's blood turned cold and it wasn't because of the coolness of the small building… it was simply her. In all his life, he had never seen her like… this. Her eyes were glazed over, her body starting to become a living skeleton… and the way… she acted…

"Ino! Who did this you! Tell me! What… did they do!"

Shikamaru shook her shoulders, as if trying to get the girl he had known for so long to snap out this daze… to get her back to being someone he could willingly hate instead of worry over. His efforts were in vain for she only giggled harder and she was like a thin rag doll, flopping up and down with each shake. Suddenly realizing he was probably hurting her, the Chuunin immediately lay her down softly on the bamboo bed and resorted to gripping the bed frame, his knuckles pure white.

"Heeheehee! You-you shake hard, don't you! Oh look… a fishy over there-"

"Ino… I'm serious… what. Did. They. do to you…?"

"They? Oh they were really nice to meee… They gave me lotsa things to drink and then stuck needles in me- that tickled…" The kunoichi smiled and laughed again before she scowled, "Why d'you wanna know anyway? All YOU do is chase af-after Temari! Oh, so you're caring now, huh Shikamaruuuu? Well I'm NOT caring. All you do is try to tr-trip me up and get rid of meeee! Get outta here!"

The mood change hit Shikamaru on full and he swallowed, his brain for once slow to work as he thought of what to say. Nothing came. Even with her freakish giggling and behavior the words she had just spoken were the cold, blunt truth.

"You heard the lady. Get outta here."

Damn. That man… Shikamaru jerked his head away from the pitiful sight- they had cracked Ino and reduced… her to a mad, crazy, delusional girl.

"What did you really do to her…?"

"Like she said. Gave her lotsa things to drink and stuck needles in her. Nothing much." The man flicked a vicious grin at him, "But of course, there had to be some side effects for all the… experimentation."

"Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out!" shrilled Ino, her voice starting to turn into a frenzied scream, "Jerk! Jerk! Jerk! I hate you!"

Those last words somehow crushed more of the Chuunin then any battles that had left him half-dead or that time when returning from failing to rescue Sasuke, leaving so many lives at peril- they crushed him completely so much that when the shinobi finally walked out the door...

He was a lifeless shell- for what was he supposed to do, what was he supposed to think when the girl he finally realized he really cared about...

Split into a state of insanity?

--------------------------------------------------

"Stand up, you all! Don't you dare slouch! Shirts off- now."

Sasuke took this brief second while every fumbled to glance around, taking in the situation. As he thought, they were underground- these people must have somehow bored caves and chambers down here. Dim lighting came from above where several oil lamps swung slowly. As he managed to take his shirt off, The Uchiha counted who was there… Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru… the whole gang of males- excluding Rock Lee. Glancing back at Shikamaru, he briefly wondered what happened between him and Ino- the Chuunin had slipped off to find her pretty stealthily and they were almost round the corner when the guy noticed. And even though, Sasuke wasn't one to care for others, in particular Nara Shikamaru he noticed that the shinobi seemed rather…

A stick slapped him none to gently, forcing him to face forward, "Look straight ahead, hands at your back… unless of course Sasuke-kun is to stupid to that and then it'll be fine."

The blow was more to Sasuke's pride then to his cheek and though Sasuke bit his lip to stop from saying something rash, the Uchiha glared back at the man, defiantly. He knew that it would take a whole lot more to get him to crack… but they were on the road to it. Red eyes met yellow as other shinobi glared right back. If it had been any other man, Sasuke would have probably won the staring match… but not to this man. For there was such an eery resemblance to Orochimaru that the Sharingan user's eyes snapped away, painful memories flashing through his mind.

It had only been a few months since Naruto dragged him back from the depth of Orochimaru's lairs, half-dead and dropping into a faint as soon as he reached the front door of Sakura's apartment. This was the first real mission he was allowed to go on and people still seemed to give him the cold shoulder. Some nights (though he would never to admit this to anyone) he would wake up sweating, nightmares still fresh in his mind. And now…

Here was a man who looked exactly like his former master- give or take the age and several minor features. He hadn't really got much more then a quick glance at him but now… the similarities were startling… Those same yellow eyes, that same jet black, straight hair and the most striking thing… was the same deathly white, pale skin. Could that mean, Orochimaru was in charge of this village…? Another hideout for his plans? Was he here… No. His curse seal was hurting, but he could be coming… After all, he did want his 'vessel' back…

The man stopped the staring competition upon hearing heavy footsteps at the chamber entrance. He spun around.

"Jiro-sama! Here are the captives…" the man bowed lowly to the newcomer, who was obviously one with a high rank, "I've observed that none of them in particular are very strong- their average intelligence is rather low, speed and stamina lacking immensely… but some may need to be taken down a notch of two."

"Thank you. Dismissed."

As Sasuke stood he noticed that the man, wore the same shining forehead protector on his arm, his stature tall with well definied muscles… if anything, there was a resemblance to 'morino ubiki' the examiner at the Chuunin Exams… who specialized in interrogation… damn. There were no scars littering this man's head but the way he held himself immediately commanded authority.

Striding briskly across the room, the man walked behind the row of ragged teenage boys, peering here and there before finally stopping in front of Chouji. Sasuke heard the dreaded feet stop and knew exactly what was going to happen.

"Oh look. Akimichi Chouji. What a lot of useless fat here, wonder how you became a Chuunin…" the man named as Jiro pinched a bit of fat, "Your teacher must have been quite useless too, doing nothing with a… fatass like you."

The insults, though quiet, were heard well around the room and Chouji stiffened immensely.

"Maybe we could use you as a punching bag, fatty. No wonder no one liked you in your school. You didn't think of anyone else but food. What a selfish, greedy, fatass. Not worth my time at all."

Chouji's self-control snapped, and faster then lightning, the Akimichi threw a heavy punch at the interrogator. As if expecting it, Jiro caught the punch easily, let go, and walked to the next person.

Over the next hour, the man continued his examination, looking at muscles, chests, eyes… anything that could be looked at. He looked at them, like looking at good for sale… and lashed out at each and everyone of them. By the end of it all, he had somehow previously grasped each and everyone's greatest weaknesses and pointed them out, critically. Kankuro (who had grown so much more worse in this short time period), was pushed to the ground with a single fingertip. Gaara tried to intervene… but for once, he found that the was no sand to aid him, for his precious gourd had been taken away. Hyuuga Neji was reduced to an arrogant fool who knocked away the underdogs (that would soon be greater then him) and was an emotionless bastard, period. Naruto spat in the man's face and though expecting a punch back, received such a in depth lash out, that the spirit went out of the Kyuubi container immediately.

Sasuke normally would have listened easily, before keeping them in his mind as a way to gain advantage over those people, later on in his life as an avenger. But now, something had changed and though he tried to shut his ears, not care… the harsh, blunt words struck him and he didn't want to hear such things about the rest… And the shock kept vibrating through him, the same question being asked over and over again with no answer… How did HE know all of those things?

At the end of this ordeal, Jiro summoned the same damned man who had brought them all there.

"They aren't worth very much... I'll tell you that. Ah well, we might as well make some money for the village. Get Akira to put some meat into their bones, get them looking presentable... and we'll auction them off as slaves."

Slaves? Shock catapulted through the avenger's body. No way... no... no way. He had already forseen several scenarios which included torture, interrogation and death. None to pleasant, but he would rather defy them and die then live with them as the master.

But even as Sasuke tried to think of a plan that would work... ANY plan... he knew that it would be in vain. If anything nothing could be done now... No chakra... No energy... Almost no spirit left...

So, like the other shinobi in that desolate chamber, Sasuke only tried to lift his eyes up, look with a sense of pride at Jiro, stand up tall and keep the feelings of dread locked up tightly in his heart. For the solid truth of enslavery seem to take any left energy out of most of the shinobi… and that they had no way to stop this fate was like a mallet coming down on a judges table, declaring execution.

It was final.

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Hyuuga Neji, if anything, was one who would more likely work psychology on someone else then have it worked upon him. He found himself reasonably observant, and though many times after felt guilty, used it to his advantage to reduce the already nervous, frightened Hinata into a stuttering mess, briefly, during the Chuunin exams. He had interpreted her movement perfectly- which wasn't a hard thing to do, considering Hinata- and psyched her out, saying out loud her very own thoughts, that the once Genin thought she would lose. Fortunately then, Naruto yelled out and stopped this play with the mind, rousing Hinata from her fears and allowing the girl to continue.

The villagers here… these shinobi- they were basically doing the same thing, the same psyching out he had used with Hinata. Neji glanced around at the other prisoners with him- Naruto, Gaara-sama and the Uchiha. All three looked emotionless or at least, near dead. Naruto seemed the one most affected, his usual burst of high spirited idiotical energy… just not there. Gaara was evidently worried about his brother and though Sasuke tried to show he wasn't affected by it... he was, like the rest of them. A sort of fear bubbled up when he remembered Shikamaru's contact with Ino. He hadn't seen anything, but what heard froze his blood. They had seriously… done something to the Yamanaka… And when, the Nara had come out of that ramshackle hut, he looked… so… so… limp and robotic.

Leaning against the prison's rock wall, the painful reflection of everything that man, Jiro said… was true. It was cruel and wrong… but they were doing it… merely spouting the truth and everyone, even he, felt dejected and depressed. What would they do next? The startling thought of being a slave after living in luxury with servants at your beck and call… seemed so far from home… if they ever got out of here… His chakra still hadn't come back, and he'd suspected that when it did… it'd be drained somehow.

Anger started to pound against his chest as Hyuuga briefly wondered whether the girls would have to go through the same ordeal… and be inspected like cattle for sale- how dare they…! Running back through his memory to when he was spared a glance of the four kunoichi as they had piled out of that desolate room, Neji found himself remembering in great detail the wound on Tenten's arm- it had evolved from simple gash to a large infection… He should've cleaned it out or at least… something! Flashbacks reappeared in the sixteen year old's mind, moving quickly through the images… and suddenly stopped at the brief instant where he touched her cheek.

Shock momentarily widened his eyes as to why his mind should stop on this particular time and why he had actually done that. A few moments later, his brain (which normally ruled most of his thinking) droned out, _"Hormones,"_ as an answer. After that, almost slyly, his heart whispered, _"Affection,"_ and a few other words that made the Byakugen user wish he'd never ask the question in the first place. Thus, uncomfortable with this topic which had great relevance to a certain female kunoichi, Neji swept those thoughts away…

He already knew why their 'benevolent hosts' rearranged the cage groups for the male captives. He was probably considered one of the intriguing ones, due to his Byakugen white eyes. Naruto was probably dumped in here because they could trace the Nine Tales Fox Demon in him, Gaara because of his Shukaku, and of course Uchiha Sasuke for his Sharingan. In another time or place he might have felt honored… until he had the dark thought of knowing that he and the 'intriguing' shinobi were probably going to end up dead. They'd try to wrestle the Byakugen and Sharingan out and get the demons extracted by some jutsu. He had no idea of how their captors would manage this, but anything was possible now.

The Hyuuga knew that most of what 'Jiro' said was the truth... in a very harsh manner... But, he also knew that they were spamming and bringing all of them down for particular reasons... In the begining everyone had been relatively weak but... as rightful shinobi were, they were a tough bunch of fighters... At this current hour, people were more or less the opposite- there would be less chance of them all escaping or causing a revolt. Since people were more becoming so spiritless, the Byakugan user assumed that they would even more fit the role of a slave...

Hyuuga Neji, if anything, was one who would more likely work psychology on someone else then have it worked upon him. However, in this case, just how the hunter became the hunted… the normal role was reversed. For these twisted shinobi were playing dark games with all of their minds… and as hard as he tried to not give in and be taken in by their mad psychology… he knew, with growing dread…

It was working.

* * *

Firstly, yes I DO know that post time skip Gaara has the Shukaku extracted from him by Akatsuki, but when I first started writing the story Gaara was still the carrier of Shukaku and the basic plot line IS fitted for a Gaara with Shukaku as you will see in the future chapters.

Secondly, yes I DO also know that I'm no doctor of psychology so be warned if my some of my writing value takes a dip because these villagers are going to go try have a play with everyone's minds, thus the reason why for the next few chappies, we get the 'darker dramatic' side. I've never really thought or studied psychology the most I know is from movies nn, and a crash course from an online encyclopedia which wasn't very helpful… --

Thirdly, yes I WILL update soon- I no longer have writer's block nowadays! The plot is more or less quite firm now too- and don't forget, anyone wanna beta?

Fourthly, like I said in the beginning, Lee and Ino will probably not jump in with their POV for a bit as you can imagine why.- 2 or 3 chapters and you can see their 'youthful' thoughts and perspective again.

Fifthly, I LOVE reviews! gestures innocently to the purple button labeled 'review' at bottom of page

Sixthly, I dunno. Ah well. Thanks for reading, dwell on the 'fifthly' thing for a bit, and I will be back!

StarDragon


	12. Chapter 12: Insanity Beckons

YES! I know I haven't updated... in a long long long LOOONG time. The longest time ever.

Exams. Lots of them. End of Year Exams. Hard Exams. Things you need to study for and not turn on the computer.

Yeah... That basically sums it up. Sorry ofr the long wait. Anyhow, story stuff. I know, this chapter automatcialy plunges the whole story genre into drama. I really shouldn't have... Because it was meant to be more lighthearted then this. But hey, the humor's coming back... one day. I so far has one person as a back up beta... Yep anyway up for being my beta for this story?

Thank you very much for everything who reviewed last time too. Like a month ago... But your reviews ARE appreciated! nn

What else... Nothing. Here ya go! Chapter 12. Sorry about the chapter title. couldn't think of a better title.

* * *

Shipwreck Chapter 12:

Insanity Beckons

* * *

"Unknown grey lumps in unknown grey sauce. Wonderful. You guys really treat your guests like dynasty lords don't you?" muttered Inuzuka Kiba sarcastically as he poked at the food, if it could be called food, on the floor in front of him. 

Beside him, Shino elbowed him sharply in the shoulder but the person dishing out the meal had already heard. He was probably a few years older then all of them, a fore head protector strapped to his arm and a ladle in his right hand.

Dropping his ladle and hauling the Chuunin by one shoulder, the other shinobi spat at Kiba, "You're lucky enough to HAVE food. Looking at you we might as well bury you alive in a grave now, for all the life's that's left in you."

"Go ahead!" retorted Kiba, using the last of his strength, the frank threat of death not in the least alarming him, "It's unfortunate that you, unlike the rest of your so friendly village, don't have a sufficient brain to say anything meaningful? Is that the best you can do to demoralize me!? Why you don't at least tell me you're chucking me in a pot of boiling oil?"

The browned haired shinobi of Konoha glared, seething, at the other eighteen year old. Surprise briefly flickered across the teen's face, the expected submission far from coming and the heated defiance and scorn enough for him to end the dispute with a forceful punch. Kiba fell backwards into the wall and gazed around, disorientated. In blurred images he saw Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru and Kankuro. But even then, as he felt the second punch, he knew they could not help but stare with glazed eyes at him. Kankuro was practically in a coma, Shikamaru in his own little depressed world and Chouji and Shino too weak to move.

After the third punch Kiba grinned and pointed his finger back up at his assailant.

"Hah. Is that the best you can do? No bones broken yet!" Kiba glanced up the other shinobi, grinning after seeing the anger on the older teen's face, "What else are you going to do to me, Jungle Boy? You can't do anything worse, that's for sure. You already messed up my whole entire freaking life! Hinata's got a freaking broken arm, Akamaru's freaking not with me, Shino's freaking nearly dead and I'm going freaking, freaking crazy! Tell me! What else are you going to do? Kill me?"

The so called 'Jungle Boy' delivered a kick at Kiba, picked up his fallen ladle and left the cell quickly, the rattle of the wheels on the food cart echoing softly. Kiba laughed again… and again glancing around at the others. Chouji tried to ignore him, the ninja trying in vain to get some food down Kankuro's mouth. Shino kept repeating, "Kiba's lost it… Kiba's lost it…" but Kiba didn't care- he already knew that. Akamaru was probably dead, they were never going to get out of this place so why not spend the last days of his freaking life insane or not feel any freaking emotional stress of pain?

"Hey Shikamaru! Did you see that guy? He's nothing much compared to Tsundae-sama or even that Jiro-sama person! Wooooooot! Oh yeah!" cried Kiba, "I am so insane!"

Something in that sentence triggered Shikamaru back to life, but even so Kiba didn't really notice, the Chuunin spending too much focus on laughing.

"He's rash. He didn't scare anybody. He's not like the other two we met. He nearly lost face." Said the Nara suddenly, his head snapping upward, "He's human."

The statement cut off Kiba's laughter and the Inuzuka scrambled towards the fellow ninja, excited to see Shikamaru actually talking, "Of course he's freaking human Shikamaru! Of course he didn't scare anybody! What are you on about!?!"

But Shikamaru dipped his head downwards again, his right index finger drawing patterns on the floor, a sign of his return to 'his own little world'.

"Stupid Shikamaru… Chouji! You're the only one here who hasn't gone insane yet!" Kiba clambered over the big sized fifteen year old, "Gwahahahahahahahahahaaaaa! I must be scaring you huh? Why don't go all crazy like me instead of forcing yourself to become all depressed? I mean look at me! I'm going to die anyway, who cares what state I'm in when I do it? I have one mood Chouji! And that's hypo happy- uncaring, unfeeling un-everythiiiiiiiiiiiiing!"

But Chouji seemed to ignore him, a spooked look in his eyes as he continued to tend to Kankuro.

"Ugh. Fine. Don't talk to me, I'll go talk to Shino."

Very much like an overgrown, humanized puppy dog, Kiba clambered back to Shino, and didn't notice the scared look his friend gave him- a look caused by the Inuzuka's antics. What Kiba also didn't notice were the insects crawling around the Aburame's body- for once, they seemed to be lethargic and most of them simply didn't do anything but lay there, looking very much dead. Suddenly realizing that the insects could fit easily through the prison''s bars which served as a wall, Kiba immediately tugged on Shino's shirt.

"We can get out of here! Look! Just give your bug things the word and they'll can infiltrate the whole village and kill everyone! Then we can get out of his hell hole! Or maybe I should say hell island!" the fifteen year old threw back his head and laughed madly, somehow finding his joke hilarious.

Shino shook his head and whispered, "Stop laughing Kiba… please…"

But the other Chuunin of Team 8 didn't hear him, the laughter carrying on, the sound echoing and growing. And thus it was, that as Kiba laughed hysterically and loudly, he forgot about the escape plan and didn't even hear when Shino muttered,

"It wouldn't work… damn it. Half of them are dead already and it's because I don't have any more chakra to feed them."

The laughter finally stopped after another fifteen to twenty seconds and Kiba looked around the damp, stony prison cell, for once not having that grotesque smile on his face. Chouji and Shino looked at him, hope showing up on their face, wondering if Kiba had finally snapped out of insanity.

"Hah… Funny isn't it. If I was the old me I might have been stressed and morbid like the rest of you guys and run around trying to keep everyone alive… If I was the old me I would have been stupid like you guys. Stupid because I'd still think that I could save someone who's already dead! Stupid because you're enduring all this pain just so you can tortured by those freaks out that!"

Chouji and Shino both looked away, their hope shattering painfully like a glass cup when dropped on the floor. The freakish smile returned to the brown haired shinobi.

"But I was smart in a roundabout way. I decided to run away from everything so I'm running around and I can't feel pain! I can't wait till I get to the stage while I see flying fishes and purple dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

With that, Kiba erupted into another gale of laughter, his fists banging wildly against the prison walls.

He had always been told that the real insane people in life never classified themselves as insane. And at the other end of the scale, he had also been told that so many normal, weird but other sane in mind people ran around, proclaiming to be insane.

But here he was… running about, absolutely crazy and totally insane- and the almost disturbing fact was that in the far, deepest depths of his mind, Inuzuka Kiba knew perfectly well that he was insane.

He was so damned messed up!

At that point, Kiba's laughter reached a fever pitch, and the shinobi realized with mad joy-

He could see purple frogs dancing in midair.

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From the other side of the wall, Temari winced as she tried to block out the laughter. Kiba's laughter. Hinata was looking like she might have a mental break down soon and the Sand Nin herself was very much disturbed. Fortunately, if there was anything to be happy about, it was to know that at least none of the female captives have gone insane yet. Temari caught herself- considering what Kiba already was, if Ino was under something examination or something she'd probably go berserk. She almost chuckled, seeing with some anxiety that she was almost close to showing weakness herself. But ninja of Hidden Sand were taught not to crack under pressure- even if it was like being a grape under a stone press. Her tough barrier and skin was beginning to come off, something the eighteen year old was secretly terrified of. From the laughter she'd heard from the Inuzuka, she knew that once she cracked, she'd go insane. That, wasn't what she wanted. She had to stay strong.

She knew Hinata and the rest of the girls in the cell were looking up as some sort of protector nin. She so far was the strongest out of them yet (though Sakura was starting to prove otherwise) and the one who had shown the least weakness. Afterall, Tenten HAD lost to her in the Chuunin Exams (though he did have the advantage) and Hinata always had the demaonor of a little sister or a frail person who needed much protection-

The barred door of the cell swung upon and a trolley was rolled into view.

"Right. Takada Akira to serve you bunch of useless sluts. Huh." The newcomer, who was probably the same age as her, spat out blood from his mouth, "Well at least you're better then those madcap boys in the other cell."

The guy was tall and lean with a foreign hitai-ate on his arm and his ragged dark brown hair was cut quite short. Akira glanced around, his silver blue eyes glimmering in the darkness. Temari gazed at him rebelliously, fervently keeping up her tough attitude up. They were not cracking her. They were not cracking her. Their 'inspecter', the pleasant Jiroi-sama was a lewd, perverted man- who the hell did he think he was, forcing them to strip down to the barest of clothing before practically feeling them up and calling them whores?

"If we are meant to be sold in a slave auction… this food isn't going to get us looking healthy and fit, you know." Sakura's tired green eyes surveyed the food that was being slopped into bowls.

Temari followed the other girl's gaze, mentally agreeing. Even the pigs at home weren't fed THIS badly!

"It's basically some sort of water with meat… If you want us to look in our prime… give us something real- you know, stuff with actual carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals? Even normal water would a miracle."

Takada Akira smirked down as he slammed a bowl of broth and wooden spoon for Sakura.

"You sluts are already pretty, that's why you're not dead. But this is specially made so you won't die but so you can't regain your chakra- or at least, you'll regain it, but very, very limitedly. We're not idiots, you know."

Akira ladled out another bowl and dropped it down in front of Tenten, the bowl and spoon clattering to the floor with grey liquid splattering everywhere. The kunoichi looked up tiredly and was about to deliver a comment when she grimaced in pain. Temari swallowed as she looked at the teen's arm. Torn bits of clothing dyed red from blood adorned Tenten's wounded arm but she was sure as heck that the thing was infected. And this bastard here, this sick, sick freak, only had a sick smile on his face.

"Dearie me. It's the panda look-a-like freak who tries to act like she can actually fight… but she oh so unfortunately gets scared by a tiny snake and now her poor liddle arm is all infected. Huh. I bet you'll one of the ones we'll have to decapitate since no one at the auction would ever pick you, the ugliest out of the lot.."

Anger giving her strength, Tenten grabbed the spoon in front of her and threw it forcefully back at the other shinobi. This feat took less then a second to take place, Temari watching half blurred movement as the wooden utensil hit Takada Akira square in the face. Heh. At least she could always be depended on to hit things, no matter what.

"Dearie me." Mocked Tenten, struggling to raise her voice, "It's the guy who's not good enough to be a proper shinobi like us so he gets to deliver the food. He tries to act cool but he oh so unfortunately gets hit by a little sick kunoichi. Is that a big nasty bruise I see on your face? I hope you it gives you brain damage and you'll be mentally retarded for life."

Tenten's eyes narrowed and Temari quickly met her eyes, giving the Konoha-nin a grim smile of support. Perhaps she was another who wouldn't crack. Hinata was on the verge of running around screaming and Sakura, with the mental stress she'd been in (with Kankuro, Tenten and the rest being in some sort of disease) would be in the same category. Unfortunately, being rebellious had it's consequences and Tenten would have to face some more mental tortue or the easier one, getting beaten up. At least this guy didn't seem nearly as threatening as the first two benevolent natives they'd met.

"O-nii-san!!! O-nii-san!!" a high pitched squeal echoed through the dark halls.

A young girl followed after the squeal, her arms holding a stuffed doll of some sort to her chest. Even with the dim light, Temari could already see the large similarities between Akira and her. The same silver-grey eyes and same coloured hair. The sharp nose was portrayed in both faces except while Akira had some sort of weariness on his face, the younger girl had innocence and naivety reflected in hers.

"Chihiro! What are you doing here!?!" Akira spun around, fixing a steely gaze on his younger sister, "I told you to stay at home! You know when I have shinobi work!"

"But I was bored… And- omiomiomiomikamisama look at them!" And without another word, the little girl, a frame of skin and bones, slid through the bars.

--------------------------------------------------

"You know what? I've had enough of THIS!" Uzamaki Naruto suddenly stood up from where he once sat, his old bleak face turning into anger and emotion.

"Yeah… We all have had enough of this- but what are we going to do? Through a tantrum and get beaten senseless?" Tired and none too tolerant, Uchiha Sasuke retorted a reply from the other end of the cell.

Naruto gazed around- his anger feeling energy that could not be put out by a mere Uchiha. Neji glared at him critically, obviously wondering if he had gone off the top and Gaara looked away. Naruto swept his eyes away, undaunted by the other reactions- after all, Gaara and Neji were practically emotionless… or at least on the outside. From the other sides of the cells he could hear voices, though he couldn't tell exactly what. Suddenly, a brainwave came through the Uzamaki's mind. Like, hello, byakugen?

"Neji! Your byakugen! We can use it to find out what's happening-"

"I'm not that dumb Naruto." Interrupted Neji giving the blonde another critical look.

"Geez, so you're somehow powerful enough to drag me out of Orochimaru's lair… but somehow don't have the intelligence to work that out?!?" Sasuke rolled his eyes, "If Neji were able to use the Byakugen, he would've… idiot."

"B-but it doesn't require chakra!" Naruto defended himself, somewhat proud of his 'brainwave'.

"No it doesn't…" Neji sighed, "But I would be able to keep it up for very long. It needs energy… like everything else. Energy I don't have. If the Byakugen didn't require anything, don't you think I would just keep it on all the time?"

"…" Naruto looked like a deflated balloon, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on point of view, his balloon hadn't popped yet.

"Why don't you use your other form of chakra… You know, the Kyuubi's one?" Sasuke stated this blatantly.

Naruto opened his mouth to grin. How the hell did he forget about THAT?!?!?

Sasuke stared at him. Naruto looked away, not wanting to see the all too infamous Sasuke smirk. Closing his eyes, the shinobi dove into his depths of his mind, walking along that familiar hall to the lair of the Kyuubi. He bowed his head and made the customary plea…

_I need some chakra…_

"_Again? And you're using it to damned get out of here!?! Listen kid. It's your own fault. Besides that, you and I are in no urgent life-threatening danger."_

_They're going to freaking kill us and that's not life-threatening?!?_

"_Not yet."_

_Just a little bit will do… Please!_

"_Fine- I'll give you some of my power… Remember._

_After this you're on your own, cub. I'm not your damned guardian. I'm only saving you if it's saving me. Get out of here!"_

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he grinned, feeling the fresh energy surge through him. His three cell mates looked at him curiously.

"YES!" The demon-container punched the cell wall victoriously beside him.

But Naruto had forgotton something. Even a tiny trickle of Kyuubi power… was extremely strong. The orange clad shinobi crashed through the wall and into the next cell. But it didn't stop there. Naruto yelled out warning to the kunoichi from Konoha and raked his feet into the stone floor, urging every inch of his body to stop moving. His fist, covered by a red stream of chakra did not stop and crashed through the second wall. What the hell!??! Kyuubi! This time using all of his body, Naruto slammed his fist down into the ground, hoping that would stop his flight. It did, he was practically vertical, his fist being the only support he had. Around him, he faintly heard Kiba whooping and yelling in a deranged manner. Good Gods… No. He better not think about what happened to HIM. Righting himself up, Naruto glanced at his fist. Not a single mark on it and the traces of charka had disappeared.

He glanced back in horror at the holes he's made- the two holes looking like doorways from the three cells that held the shinobi of Konoha. Damn it! He didn't mean to waste it like that! How was he meant to know that just punching like that would have so much damned power?

_Kyuubi! _

"_What? I told you NOT to come back here! You arrogant-"_

_How was I supposed to know that was going happen!?! Normally I control the chakra._

"_Human. Think about it with your pathethic little mind. You did control the chakra. You just forgot the damned basic rule of decreasing the power when you hit that wall!"_

_One more chance! I can get out of here! You know I can!_

"_There's no point. I said, your own your own now."_

_But, what about the other times? _

"_They were on the scale of threatening my existence as your existence was being threatened…Unlike this time._

_After all. It'd be fun to watch you suffer."_

--------------------------------------------------

The dilated pupils on Kankuro's eyes rolled back into focus and the grey world followed suit. What…

The Hell?

Yeah. It did seem like hell. After all, wasn't he pretty out of it when-

When was he last conscious…? The sixteen year old racked his memory, the images and thoughts he wanted just not there. Finally, he remembered. They were…

He struggled… The whole group of them, they were finding… the blonde… Ino… and they had to pass through a swamp. Then… he ended here. Somehow.

He looked around him weakly. Where those… prison bars?

Then… His mind struggled to function. Why were there holes in the walls? Maybe… Maybe he wasn't thinking right.

"Chihiro! Out! Out! Don't you ever come back here! Yes I know they are freakin' holes that a damned prisoner made. The main thing is that you get out of here before someone kills you! Now! Chihiro!"

Who… was that?

"Chihiro! Don't you disobey me! I promised mom… Yes! I'm dragging you! We're going home. NOW."

A door slammed shut and as the sounds of a cart being wheeled away was heard, Kankuro stiffened as he heard the crying of a little girl. Just like Temari… when she found their mother was dead. Temari. Was she here! Damn it! He couldn't… get up.

"Temari… Here's Kankuro. He's been unconscious-"

"Kankuro! Kankuro!"

He faintly felt his body being brought up and his sister hugging him. He tried to open his eyes but the eyelids seemed to have glued themselves shut. He tried to reach out one hand, try to tell his sister that he was all right, that he would be okay… but the vocal chords in his throat wouldn't work. He wanted to move, he wanted to cry, to show some emotion to tell his sister he was alive… but they wouldn't come.

"We'd need Sakura-chan to tell if he's… able to live." Chouji's voice came softly from seemingly nowhere in the darkness.

"Chouji… He's alive! Dammnit! He's my brother and he's alive!"

"Hahahahahahahahaah… Fawning over Kankuro, the lot of you. We might as well all go to hell and- look over there… there's the gate to it."

"Sakura! You're here! Finally here! My brother… He's all right… Right? Tell me he's all right!"

"Temari… Your brother is in critical condition and we're far away from Konoha medical hospital…"

"You're a medic nin!"

"I know…"

"Where's Kankuro."

"Gaara…"

"Where is he?

"Over there but-"

"Gaara…"

"Sakura can heal him. He's not dying."

"Gaara… Gaara's right."

"Please… There's a time when… you… have to let go. You know?"

"We're not letting go."

"Those holes… Chouji! Ask Naruto if he can get us-"

"He can't... I already asked. The... thing inside of him won't provide any more chakra."

"Kankuro's not dying."

"I know-"

"He's not dying. He's my brother. He's the kazekage's brother."

"He's mine.. too… Kankuro… wake up! I've had to nearly lose you once… Remember… You got poisoned and Gaara just about got kidnapped… But they didn't get far because the village wouldn't let them… And…"

"He… Can't Hear You…"

"He damn well can! He's alive."

"Come on Sakura… Kiba… Give them some room."

"Remember Kankuro? And I really… really thought both of you were about to die. Then… it's happening again. But you're not going to… Remember when you built that puppet… Your first one? How Gaara broke it and you got so, so mad and angry? Please… Kankuro! Just say something! I don't ever… want to lose you again…"

"Temari. Kankuro will be all right."

"How can you… say that? He's on the verge of death."

"I'm going to get the people who captured us to heal him."

"You saw them! You saw those… monsters. They won't listen to reason…!"

"I am the Kage of Hidden Sand Village Temari. I will do what I have to do."

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Yes. I'm fully aware that this chapter... 

S

U

C

K

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My writing skills need a bit of a brush up. This story is teetering on 'discontinued'. Sniff. All the plot bunnies running around in my head are REALLY tempting not to resist, abandon this and write. Ah well...

Well, hopefully, you'll be able to bear with moi and the update... should be something. I'm not making ANYMORE promises.

-StarDragon


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